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Gerd Ludwig
Broken
Empire: After the Fall of the USSR
January 10 - February 26, 2002
Blindfolded
by a child, a statue of Stalin, most feared ruler of the communist era,
sits amid other toppled effigies of party leaders now jumbled together
in a Moscow park. To ardent believers in the glories of communism, such
disrespect is heresy. To hopeful new democrats, the jigsaw jumble signifies
freedom. |
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NY NY
Vintage Photographs
from
the Photo League & the NY School
Lida
Moser
Erika Stone
Joe Schwartz
Bill Witt
March 1 - April 30, 2002
The Photo League was a school, an association, a social club and probably
the birth place of American Documentary Photography as we know it today.
Founded in 1936 and disbanded in 1951 by government blacklisting, the
Photo League promoted photojournalism with an aesthetic consciousness
and a social conscience. The work that Photo League members Moser, Schwartz,
Stone and Witt produced is beautiful, textured and disturbing. These
artists worked during tough times; the effects of the depression were
everywhere evident, fascism was on the rise in Europe, laborers held
demonstrations and lengthy strikes. The Photo League documented New
York Society capturing the texture and vitality of a great American
city in transition.
The photographs in the exhibition documents a period that seems far
away. People, cars and clothes don?t look like that anymore. But it
would be a mistake to dismiss this work as anything less that timely
and relevant. The neighborhoods documented by the Photo League are
self
contained, populated by small societies within the metropolis of the
city. This is still New York; this is New York today as it struggles
to deal with tremendous loss and transition. The work of The Photo
League
should remind us of the miraculous humanity that exists within the
greatest cities; and of the importance of documenting that humanity
for now and
the future. |
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André
de Dienes
Part One: Becoming Marilyn
May 9 – June
8, 2002
In 1945 André de Dienes called a modeling agency looking for
a new face to photograph. The agency sent a nineteen-year-old girl on
her first assignment. Her name was Norma Jeane Dougherty; the future
Marilyn Monroe. The two embarked on a trip to take pictures in the Western
States. During the journey the two became friends and lovers; the resulting
pictures are Marilyn Monroe’s earliest professional images. “Becoming
Marilyn” is a document of her beginnings; before she learned to
exist as the Hollywood icon she became. Captured in photographs is the
naiveté and youthful exuberance of a nineteen-year-old girl as
of yet unnaquainted with the methods of Hollywood packaging. A book
of de Dienes’ diaries and photos of Norma Jeanne will be published
by Taschen. |
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André
de Diene
Part Two: An Evening with Marilyn
June
13 – July
13
In November of 1961 a young photographer from Fort Erie Canada found
himself with the thrilling and terrifying job of photographing Marilyn
Monroe. The assignment was to take the most sizzling picture he could
get for the 25th anniversary issue of Look. Kirkland devised a simple
set; a bed and white sheets, silk as Marilyn had requested. He procured
the Dom Perignon and Frank Sinatra LP’s for which she’d asked.
Eventually the two of them were alone with the camera. Kirkland used
a constant light so there would be no interruption of a flash. In the
book “An Evening With Marilyn” Kirkland describes the sensuality
and intimacy of the shoot. Between photographs he lay on the floor
and
the two talked and laughed. Some of the most telling images are those
of Kirkland and Marilyn together during the shoot. These photographs
are Marilyn Monroe as we remember her; sexual, smiling, somehow natural
beneath her cap of peroxide hair. Her spirit is echoed by the terrific
sense of immediacy in the photographic technique. You can almost feel
her rolling languidly around the bed, challenging the photographer.
Her skill at being Marilyn is apparent and yet she retains the radiance
captured in the de Dienes prints. She is no longer innocent; she is
a professional, and less than a year later she would be dead. |
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Lisa
J. Grossman
KANSAS PLEIN
AIR
July
18 – August 31
Lisa
Grossman’s paintings achieve a rare balance between abstraction
and figuration, technique and process, beauty and concept. Her paintings
are of the broad Kansas Prairie, painted outside and generally in a
single sitting. Grossman utilizes a broad palette, using the rich hues
of the evening, blues greens and oranges, and the acid colors, (almost
Bonnard like) of a hot clear day. Although these paintings are clearly
representational, Grossman’s brushstrokes stand out, capturing
the method and consciousness of the artist at work. She will often spend
an entire day or two in the hills observing her reactions to the environment
before she begins to paint. In one sense her paintings are beautiful,
sometimes solemn, meditations on the quickly vanishing open prairie.
And in another way, she captures her own artistic spirit by her use
of color and texture within the picture plane.
Lisa Grossman lives and works in Kansas. She was the recipient of The
Kansas Arts Commission Fellowship, The Virginia Mastio Memorial Purchase
Award at The National Small Oil Painting Exhibition at The Wichita Center
for The Arts, and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Faculty Memorial Scholarship. |
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Tom
Arndt
September
5 – October 12, 2002
Tom Arndt is best known for his images of the "everyman",
in bars, on sidewalks and prairies, in parades and at state fairs. There
is timelessness to the people in these photographs, and a sense of American
community that is both sentimental and cynical. He manages to capture
the human condition with subtle visual metaphors for un-named emotions,
like the feeling of being alone in a group. This work is compelling as
much for its honesty as for its striking graphic quality.
Tom Arndt is an accomplished printer and all of his work takes advantage
of the rich tonality available in the black and white medium. Many of
the prints in this exhibition were printed in collaboration with master
printer Steve Rifkin, and the large scale photos are pushed beyond the
usual size restrictions of the 35mm image. In these oversized prints Arndt
showcases his skill at utilizing the light available during dusk and dawn.
Tom Arndt’s work is represented in numerous museums and private colletions.
He lives and works in Chicago.
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Horace
Bristol
A
Retrospective
October
17 - November 30, 2002
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