Berggruen Gallery’s Post

By 1917 Paul Strand (1890-1976) had made photographs more advanced than anything his colleagues with cameras had achieved at the time. His pictures had impact not just because they were trumpeted by art impresario Alfred Stieglitz but also because they were tough, surprising, and had intrinsic weight. Curiously mixing suavity and grit, the photographs were an unexpected knockout by a homegrown twenty-seven-year-old now one had known as a contender. In an undeniable demonstration of cumulative mastery, Strand captured the movement of life in the city, a central interest of contemporary artists.* I am pleased to have available in inventory Paul Strand’s “Under the El, New York, 1915,” a Gelatin Silver Print on Cykora paper printed by Strand in 1945. Cykora is a warm black-toned chlorobromide paper manufactured by Agfa-Ansco. The print is flush-mounted back-to-back to a processed piece of the same photographic paper as was Strand’s habit. Strand toned, then waxed the print, which has given its palette a long-lasting richness and an unusually wide range of grays between the deeper shadows and highlights. In 1945, Strand had a retrospective exhibition entitled “Photographs 1915-1945” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Strand made chlorobromide paper prints of thirteen formative years (1915-16) images for the exhibition and Under the El, New York, 1915 was one of them. He made new prints of these images because the original vintage platinum prints of these images which usually only exist as unique prints were probably not available to him. A vintage platinum print of the image was included in The Met’s 1998 exhibition "Paul Strand: Circa 1916." As the exhibition catalog states: Given the expense of printing with precious metals, as well as the labor of the intermediate steps required to create a large, printable negative, Strand in this period almost never made more than a single finished print of each image. Visit my website to view more details about this rare print of one of the earliest examples of Modernist Photography. https://lnkd.in/g7yry2wr *(excerpt from Paul Strand: Circa 1916, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Maria Morris Hambourg, 1998) #Modernism #photography #collecting

Philipp Frank Philipp Frank is an artist who grew up between Paris and Munich. His first approach to art was through graffiti, then, while photographing his artwork, he approached the world of photography and video. Today, after working for years as an art director and illustrator, Philipp specializes in site-specific installations and light art. His works are the result of a process that involves choosing the perfect location, mapping the surface on which he has decided to project, creating the images to be projected and, finally, shooting the final result. A recurring feature in his work, since his first murals, is the geometric element. Squares, triangles, circles and lines intersect to create patterns that fit the chosen location like a tailor-made suit. #art #digitalart #installation #sitespecificinstallation

Three Men Running to the de Young Museum captured through window covering fabric. The in-camera photograph is from the Unaltered State of Reality Collection. The intent of this Collection was to use a museum space to create a new photographic body-of-work and not photograph the artwork exhibited. I wanted to see the museum as a public space documenting the visitors, architecture, and building materials through prolonged observation. In many cases, the photographs incorporate a variety of materials, reflections, and movement into the images. Another goal of the 3 year project was to create images that questioned the viewer’s assessment of the image, that is, was the image a photograph, painting, or watercolor, or something else? This idea is fundamental on how people perceive what is in front of them based on individual interpretation from upbringing, education, and biases, thereby exploring the viewer's assumptions. #photographyisart #photographyart #photography #fineartphotography #photographer #artist #artcollectors #artcurators #art #museums #MuseumCurators #artconsultants #corporatecollectors #curators #photoftheday #ContemporaryArt #collection #originalprint #interiordesign #fineart #prints #fineartphotography #artwork 

Paul Hart’s current exhibition @harleyfoundation includes this commanding image of a lead pine tree growing a the forest edge entitled Guardian.  Gerry Badger wrote in Paul’s publication Truncated from which this exhibition and this photograph is carefully selected, that; “the sense of being at rest within it [the forest], of stopping still at a particular place and paying close attention to what is there is strong. Photography is the natural medium for meditation, freezing objects in space and time for our scrutiny. It does this especially felicitously in the case of people, that is, in the portrait, but the same strategy utilised to make a portrait – we might call it benign confrontation – also works well with natural and man-made objects. Paul Hart’s images of single trees function like portraits, highlighting character and nuanced individualities – with one important difference. Trees do not react like people when a camera is pointed at them. Tree ‘portraits’ depend solely upon the sensibility of the photographer. And yet, there is a distinct anthropomorphic aspect to trees. Of all natural objects, trees seem closest to man. It is clearly something to do with them being upright, perhaps the way their branches seem like arms. This is what draws Paul Hart (and us) to them, each tree has an individual character. Here, perhaps because they are pines, they are not so individualistic as some other species of trees. They are like sentries, a little stiff in bearing, guarding the landscape.” This photograph of Guardian as an artist made selenium toned silver gelatin print is available framed or unframed as a single work or as part of the series via the gallery, info@thetreeartgallery.com or via the website. The exhibition continues until the 14th July. #thetreeartgallery #treeart #trees #treephotography #paulhart #blackandwhitephotography #contemporaryart #contemporaryphotography #pinetree #derbyshire #forests

An Impressionist snow, at Paris and surroundings... Below, from left to right and top to bottom: two cityscapes, oils on canvas by the French Gustave Caillebotte, “Rooftops in the Snow” (Musée d'Orsay, Paris; 1878), and “Boulevard Haussmann in the Snow” (private collection; ca. 1879-81); “Snow Effects”, by Giuseppe De Nittis (oil on canvas: Civic Art Gallery of Barletta, southern Italy; 1880). In particular, in this and other paintings De Nittis was fascinated by snow, likely something he seldom happened to admire earlier. Actually, he was born in 1846 in the Mediterranean sea town of Barletta. As an artist influenced by the Macchiaioli pictorial movement in Tuscany, in 1868 he joined the Impressionists in Paris, participating in their first 1874 exhibition. He died in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, in 1884. In the last image here, a celebrated “The Train in the Snow”, by the French Claude Monet (oil on canvas: Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris; 1875). It depicts a steam locomotive surrounded by snow, at the Argenteuil station, near Paris. Along with other works as “The Railway” or “Gare Saint-Lazare”, 1873 painting by Édouard Manet, and “The Europe Bridge” by Caillebotte (ca. 1876), thus industrial modernity enters a pre-Impressionist or Impressionist iconography. In all three cases though, this happens with discretion. Only in Monet's example is a train really visible. Yet, the snow acts a bit like a white steam cloud in the scene by Manet. They soften the view, avoiding any possible traumatic effect. An impression of realism, even better than the bare reality.

Now on View - Begin Again: Repetition in Contemporary Art Discover the power of repetition in art through works that explore circular movements, recurring motifs, and repeated gestures. This exhibition highlights contemporary artists who use video, photography, painting, installation and works on paper to reveal how repetition can transform familiar themes into something entirely new. "Begin Again" features artists Anri Sala, Lorna Simpson, Bruce Nauman, Marepe, Francis Alys and more. Don't miss this chance to explore repetition in contemporary art, on view now through Dec. 30. Learn more: https://bit.ly/4e2d4Pl

Continuation and conclusion of the report on my visit to the exhibition "Seeing Time in Colors" at the Centre Pompidou-Metz : 2. The Care of the Colors Section #12 reminds us that color fixation techniques appeared and evolved between the late 19th and early 20th centuries: there was Louis Duclos du Hauron's trichromy, Gabriel Lippmann's interferential method, and the Lumière brothers' autochromes... 🌈 This emergence of color provides a new perspective on the photographic recording of Reality. It allows archiving the planet in all its chromatic palette, as suggested by Albert Kahn's series in section #13. 🗺️ Thus, through the work of color in photography, artists have propelled this new visual medium into the academic field of Fine Arts. Section #14 highlights the Vivex process developed by Yevonde Middleton, whose aesthetic quality is demonstrated in the "Goddesses" series of 1935. 👩🎤 Section #15 also features numerous works by Saul Leiter, highlighting his ability to capture/construct life moments that become true pictorial compositions: the depth of field, the complexity of successive planes, and the colors of the Reality arranged within the frame of the lens like an impressionist painting, even though we are in a contemporary urban world. The same pictoriality emerges from the American photographers showcased in section #16, such as Joel Meyerowitz. 🖼️ Finally, the exhibition concludes with section #17 by questioning the reaction of painting to photography, which has continuously challenged it with a revolution in imagery. Sam Stourdzé concludes his reflective journey with Gerhard Richter's paintings which, not without a touch of derision, replicate the visual feats of photography through hyperrealistic metapicture (no less!), as a way of expressing that painting is not dead; as a manual work of the eye, it can indeed embrace the territory of photography and much more... 🧑🎨

An Old Man Sitting from the Unaltered State of Reality Collection. The intent of this Collection was to use a museum space to create a new photographic body-of-work and not photograph the artwork exhibited. I wanted to see the museum as a public space documenting the visitors, architecture, and building materials through prolonged observation. In many cases, the photographs incorporate a variety of materials, reflections, and movement into the images. Another goal of the 3 year project was to create images that questioned the viewer’s assessment of the image, that is, was the image a photograph, painting, or watercolor, or something else? This idea is fundamental on how people perceive what is in front of them based on individual interpretation from upbringing, education, and biases. #photographyisart #photographyart #photography #fineartphotography #photographer #artist #artcollectors #artcurators #art #museums #MuseumCurators #artconsultants #corporatecollectors #curators #photoftheday #ContemporaryArt #collection #originalprint #interiordesign #fineart #prints #fineartphotography #artwork 

Amidst the chaos of a dream collapsing, there is a suggestion of continuity as the fragmented elements lead the viewer onward to another dream state. This visual exploration of the ebb and flow of dreams offers a reminder of their fleeting nature, where moments of clarity give way to cyclical collapse and a redirection of the mind’s focus. A Dream Collapsing is a photographic artwork that seeks to visually capture and convey the sense of a dream disintegrating. The foundation of this artwork lies in an original chemigram, a process where photosensitive paper is manipulated with various chemicals to create abstract patterns and textures. The chemigram serves as the canvas on top of which are crafted abstract shapes made using melted purple candle wax. The wax, dripping and solidifying in unpredictable patterns, introduces an element of chaos and spontaneity to the composition. The purple hue suggests mystique. The interplay between the chemigram and the tangible, almost sculptural, wax elements creates a sense of tension, as if moments in time are battling against the inevitable pull of dissolution. https://lnkd.in/eN7ekvs9 #artist #art #visualart #experimental #photography

Hello FFM 🔥 o.T., aluminium patiniert 160 x 80 x 70 cm Auflage: 2/2 + 1AP SST/S 2017_02/2 …..In the Western-Christian context - traditional visual language - the work evokes a representation of Mary with the Christ child on her arm. But it is important for Strumbel to leave these connotations open. For the closeness and intimacy that mother and child imply is a general human experience to which Strumbel has consciously referred again and again in his artistic examination of the term „home“. Lupo’s material creates a shelter that is given to this small group. It is noticeable, however, that the bubble wrap is not so much wrapped around the bodies as a protective wrapping, but is more like a garment in folds, particularly striking in the area of the woman’s head, because the folding of the wrap to the side of the head is reminiscent of a headscarf. The wrapping and wrapping with cloth and the resulting wrinkling have played an important formal and often content-related role in sculpture since antiquity. By completely covering the figures under the foil and not titling the work, the artist allows the viewer the greatest possible openness and freedom of vision and imagination. Whether one feels reminded of a burka wearer or of a Maria with Christ Child and sees her in it, lies entirely in the individual’s visual experiences and habits. The Christian churches have a hard time dealing with contemporary art. Strumbel shows in his work that it is possible to give new impulses to Christian themes through a contemporary artistic language. It is not only the durability of the material, but also the openness to diverse perspectives that enables the work to pass on its understanding to future generations. D r. B r i t t a v o n C a m p e n h a u s e n ——————- #ffm #frankfurt #sculpture #stefanstrumbel #contemporaryart #art #artsy #urbanphotography #photography #artcollector #artcollection