 |
Email PagePhotography Is Not An Art
June 22, 2006- August 19, 2006
Alan Klotz Gallery
511 W 25th St James Nasmyth Crater of Vesuvius 1864 (1874) |
What it is, is a phenomenon… something people do, often for very different reasons, only one of which is the creation of objects of esthetic value. But time, attitude and a change of context can imbue even the dumbest image, even an outright accident, with artistic merit. The impulse that causes an image to exist might be a purely scientific, certainly a non-aesthetic driven desire to accurately record the features of a person (mug shots) or a place (exploration photos, aerial reconnaissance). They might also come out of the desire to influence opinion (propaganda, advertising, the work of the picture press) or simply from a vernacular (again, not artistic) knee jerk response to subject matter (the common and not so common snapshot). “What a cute baby! puppy! boyfriend!, What a nice sunset! flower! condo!” – just check the appropriate box.
This show will concentrate on all this “other” activity, and how ultimately all this work, is as much about photographic seeing and why we turn to this medium as solution and as outlet for countless urges, drives, needs and satisfactions. They are a treasure trove of visions and ideas so often raided by the most shrewd and observant of artists – from Degas to Warhol, from Hine to Friedlander. The thief is greater than his loot!
The photographs are also about our curiosity about pictures themselves and the activity of picturing the whole obvious universe and our relationship to it. Once photographed, the resulting object/image/relic/evidence manages to confer an importance not always immediately apparent in its subject. Isolation, a clear view, changing attitudes and even a simple trick of the light, can take the mundane or trivial and confer on it import, gravitas and merit it might not immediately deserve. The prints in this show - news photos, snapshots, NASA photos, medical and science photos, postcards, advertising, vernacular and crime photos – will make you nod, scratch or shake you head or all of these in turn, but they will never bore you…
Art Reviews of Photography Is Not An Art
| The New Yorker July 17, 2006 | unknown | "This may not be the most sophisticated show to address the vast range of photographs made without aesthetic concerns, but it is one of the most instructive, engaging, and fun...." | ||
| New York Times July 14, 2006 | Ken Johnson | "...Scientific works can be surrealistically weird, like the cyanotypes resembling X-rays made from frozen slices of human cadavers in the 1940’s; or they can be wonderfully abstract, like the late-19th- or early-20th-century pictures of snowflakes by Wilson Bentley. The almost comically idealizing images of stoves from the 1920’s, which appear to have been made for advertisements or catalogs, and the anonymous, staged photographs of men spanking women from the 50’s have, each in their way, an urgency and clarity of purpose that fine-art photography too often lacks...." |
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
|
 | |||||||||||||||||
Alan Klotz Gallery was last updated: 2008-10-13
Update general information with the Gallery Editor.
Update shows with the Exhibition Manager.
Update inventory with the Inventory Manager.
Update general information with the Gallery Editor.
Update shows with the Exhibition Manager.
Update inventory with the Inventory Manager.
|
© 2005-2008 chelseaartgalleries.com | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
| Site Map |
