Eugène Delacroix
“Etude de jambes d’homme assis et étude d’une tête”
nd
Archive for November, 2008
Eugène Durieu.
“Nu masculin assis de face, les jambes écartées”
nd
“Far from seeing photography as a potential rival to painting, Delacroix took a keen interest in the development of this new medium, following its technical progress with sufficient curiosity to become a founding member of the Heliographic Society in 1851. He amassed a considerable photographic collection – of frescoes by Raphael, paintings by Rubens, and cathedral sculptures. Moreover, although he did not use a camera himself, a series of male and female nude models were photographed at his request by Eugène Durieu, in 1854 …”
Exhibition dates: November 28 to March 2, 2009
More information on the Museum Eugène Delacroix website
28
Nov
08
Patrick Christie. ‘5 Wasps’ 2008
5 Wasps
H67 x W50 cm
ink on paper
Black COCKatoo
H53 x W44 cm
ink on paper with hand embossing
This is the first exhibition by artist Patrick Christie exhibiting at green-wood gallery in South Melbourne. The ink illustrations are a mixed bag featuring native botanical specimens, beetles of various varieties and colourful birds – a red COCK, a blue peaCOCK and a black COCKatoo (the ‘cocks’ of the title). While the beetle images and the cowboy illustrations feel flat and uninspired it is the larger flower arrangements and the beautifully detailed birds that hold the attention.
With an abundance in the rendering of their subject matter both produce an uplifting cornucopia – vase, flowers, fruit and material overflowing; feathers of the Black COCKatoo repeating and blending like an Escher drawing into the gum leaves behind. The hand marks the page again and again forming exquisite line. Dutch still life of the 17th century come to mind with the flower arrangements and whilst I like the embossed word COCK under the bird images I am not sure it is really necessary. The drawings are strong enough to stand on their own.
There is real talent here. Yes the exhibition needed more conceptual rigor as the whole did not match the sum of the parts. Yes the framing needs attention especially in the bird series, where simpler frames with more space around the images would have let the work breathe but these things can be addressed. For an artist what needs to be there from the start is passion, a good eye and the talent to develop a personal language that is vibrant, interesting and unique – that can be nurtured and developed over many years. This exhibition sets Patrick Christie squarely on this path.
M Bunyan
Exhibition dates: 27th November – 7th December 2008
green-wood gallery
1 Hotham Street
South Melbourne
Opening hours: Wed – Sunday, 10 – 4pm
More images at www.green-woodgallery.com
Fazal Sheikh. The Victor Weeps: Afghanistan (Abdul Aziz holding a photograph of his brother, Mula Abdul Hakim) 1997
CONFERENCE
What is Real? Photography and the Politics of Truth
“This conference brings together renowned photographers, artists, writers, curators, and scholars in a series of panels and conversations:
- Redefining Documentary: The State of Documentary Photography Today
- Art versus Document: An (Un)comfortable Union?
- Public/Private: Community in the Digital Age
- Who Needs Truth Anyway? The Uses and Ethics of Documentary
Participants include Ariella Azoulay, Geoffrey Batchen, Nayland Blake, Okwui Enwezor, Thomas Keenan, Thomas Y. Levin, Maria Lind, Susan Meiselas, Walid Raad, Martha Rosler, Brian Wallis, and others.”
The International Center of Photography
Presents A Two-Day Symposium
to Examine The Changing Nature of Documentary Practice.
Fri. Dec. 12 2008 6–10 pm
Sat. Dec. 13 2008 9–5 pm
TheTimesCenter
242 West 41st Street
New York City
“Europeana – the European digital library, museum and archive – is a 2-year project that began in July 2007. It will produce a prototype website giving users direct access to some 2 million digital objects, including film material, photos, paintings, sounds, maps, manuscripts, books, newspapers and archival papers. The prototype will be launched in November 2008 by Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media.
The digital content will be selected from that which is already digitised and available in Europe’s museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. The prototype aims to have representative content from all four of these cultural heritage domains, and also to have a broad range of content from across Europe. The interface will be multilingual. Initially, this may mean that it is available in French, English and German, but the intention is to develop the number of languages available following the launch.”
See the video that takes a trip through the kind of thing you can find on Europeana. See the new look and download the demo ppt. http://dev.europeana.eu/home.php
Can’t wait for the real thing!
William Clift
“Somebody’s House, Baltimore, Maryland, 1964”
from the book
Certain Places
Photographs and Introduction by William Clift.
William Clift Editions, Santa Fe, 1987. 44 pp., twenty-two tritone illustrations.
One of the most ravishing photographic books ever produced. Sensitive photography, luminous images, wonderful reproductions on quality stock. Nothing more need be said. My favorite of so many great images is above.
Signed copies back in stock on photoeye (click on the book tease to see more images)
Dreamsequence, 2006/07, 8 min.
“PARIS.- Moving Stills is part of the European Month of Photography, which brings together festivals in Paris, Berlin, Bratislava, Luxembourg, Rome and Vienna. It is the second edition of Mutations, an event focusing on technological and artist change in photography, and offers a selection of videos made by European artists. A growing number of photographers are using video, and this is changing the specific criteria that define both crafts. Apart from the diversity of their aesthetic standpoints and of the visual techniques they use, the artists presented in Mutations II encourage us to step beyond the territorial considerations and academic definitions which tend to ring-fence artistic fields, and to explore the boundaries that separate them.”
more information from artdaily.org
Ron Arad
“Acrylic Oh Void 2”
armchair 2004
66 x 115 x 58 cm
“The Centre Pompidou is to devote an exhibition to the work of British architect and designer Ron Arad, his first major one-person show in France.”
One of my favourite designers!
More information on Artdaily.org
