Blog regarding art, contemporary art, art exhibition, street art
Curious Duke Gallery in East London is showing the first UK solo show of Polaroid artist Andrew Millar.
7th– 30th April 2016
173 Whitecross Street, London EC1Y 8JT
Open Monday-Friday 11:30-6:30, Saturday 12-4
Nearest stations: Old Street (exit 6) and Barbican
Free
22 February – 1 June 2014
The Holburne Museum – Bath
Free Admission
For the first time anywhere The Holburne Museum will host a remarkable collection of photographs of Pablo Picasso, taken in 3D. Pics were taken in 1957 by his friend Robert Mouzillat, at La Californie, Picasso’s villa near Cannes.
The spectator of this outstanding exhibition will wear 3D glasses in order to enjoy pictures of the Spanish painter in his art studio, surrounded by his paintings and sculptures or spending spare time with famous friends such as French writer Jean Cocteau and Spanish surrealist Jaime Sabartés.
Until the 1st ofJune.
A SPRINKLE OF STARDUST’ AT THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
A metaphorical journey into the 60s’ ‘Swinging London‘ and beyond: this is the main essence of Bailey ‘s Stardust, which opened last February at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Nearly three hundred portraits selected by David Bailey and reproduced in black and white on the occasion of the exhibition.
Actors, fashion icons, models, designers, artists, filmmakers in silver gelatin print with a distinctive and flamboyant vintage touch, (Mike Jagger, Kate Moss, Damon Albarn and Francis Bacon).
The main theme of the exhibition is ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’, the endless life and death’s dualism. Bailey ‘s Stardust epitomises the sparkling life of the showbiz and has been drawing a wide audience made up of neophytes, professional photographers and fashion lovers. Peculiar.
(Images courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London)
Information
Bailey ‘s Stardust
6 February – 5 June 2014
National Portrait Gallery
St Martin ‘s Place
London WC2H 0HE
Telephone number: 020 7306 0055
Ticket: £ 16
Opening hours: Open every day from 10 to 18 . Thursday and Friday until 21 pm
For more information:
http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/bailey/exhibition.php
David Lynch
Untitled (England), late 1980’s/early 1990s Archival gelatin-silver print
11 x 14 inches
© Collection of the artist
“I love industry. Pipes. I love fluid and smoke. I love man-made things. I like to see people hard at work, and I like to see sludge and man-made waste.” David Lynch
Take a glance at gloomy and introspective photographs taken by eclectic genius David Lynch between 1980 and 2000 in England, Berlin, Lodz, Poland, New York City and New Jersey, USA. The exhibition, currently running at The Photographers Gallery in Oxford Circus, London, is focused on the photography as a subjective tool used by the film maker to capture mysterious, dark and abandoned landscapes.
Hypnotic and enigmatic glimpses of uninhabited locations with dark and grey tones of dust, fog and debris capture the spectator and surely will draw you into the exhibition. A multi channel soundtrack will carry you away in a dark atmosphere which is the perfect counterpoint of these gelatin-silver print pictures.
Not to be missed.
(Images courtesy of The Photographers Gallery Press Office)
David Lynch: The Factory Photographs
17 January – 30 March 2014
The Photographers Gallery, London
For more information: http://www.thephotographersgallery.org.uk/david-lynch-the-factory-photographs
A stunning collection of Man Ray’s avant-garde photographs
National Portrait Gallery
7 February – 27 May 2013
http://www.npg.org.uk//whatson/man-ray-portraits/exhibition.php
The first museum exhibition focused on Man Ray’s photographic portraiture is currently displayed at the Londoner National Portrait Gallery, until 27th May.
Devoted to one of the most influential artist of the Dada movement, the exhibition includes over 150 vintage prints from the American artist’s career, taken between 1916 and 1968.
The eclectic artist, best known as a painter and film maker, showed his versatility and experimentation in the field of photography with black and white glamorous portraits of beautiful divas such as Catherine Deneuve, Ava Gardner, Kiki de Montparnasse and Coco Chanel. The photographer depicted also cultural figures like his friend Marchel Duchamp, Andre Breton, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, James Joyce, Henri Matisse, Le Corbusier, Igor Stravinsky and Georges Braques.
Main themes of the photographs collection are obviously passion, love and women’s beauty. Black and white tones of the first works are followed by innovative experiments with colour photography, such as his portrait of French singer Juliette Greco.
One of the most attracting work of the exhibition is stunning French actress Catherine Deneuve portrait. The artist took her picture in his Parisian studio in 1968. The photograph, appeared on the fashion Vanity Fair magazine’s cover, underlines the undeniable smartness of the young actress.
Here Catherine is pictured wearing stunning spiral-shaped earrings, surrounded by different wooden objects such as a jewellery box disguised as a book and a chessboard. In fact the artist was keen on chess and used to play it with his friends such as Surrealist André Breton and Dada artist Marchel Duchamp.
Ray was also a pioneer in Solarisation; a particular technique to develop black and white photographs by exposing a print or negative to a flash of light during the development. He discovered this photographic technique by chance. He was developing some photographs in the darkroom when a sheet of plain paper accidentally dropped on some papers. Nothing appeared so the artist got irritated, threw away some objects on the soaking paper and turned on the light. He obtained suggestive bright images with a black background.
An example of this technique is Lee Miller’s portrait. Lee Miller was an American model, Man Ray’s muse and his photography assistant in Paris. In the portrait below the brightness of the whites is cleverly combined with the dark tones. The model and muse’s profile is underlined by the gentle contrast between light and shade.
Man Ray Portraits is overall fresh and exhaustive. Nevertheless, a different organization of the exhibition, focused on the creativity of Man Ray’ s works, would have been more successful rather than a chronological structure. Artists’ career goes beyond the sequential order imposed by the art exhibitions’ curators.
(Photographs courtesy of National Portrait Gallery Press Office).
