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Katy Moran, Nature Boy, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 38 x 46cm, courtesy of collection of Carlo Bronzini Vender, New York, image courtesy of Stuart ShaveModern Art, London and Andrea Rosen Gallery. |
Maaike Schoorel, Roger h, 2009, oil on canvas 60 x 50cm, courtesy of Maureen Paley, London and Marc Foxx, Los Angeles.
Hans Josephsohn, Untitled, (Lola), 1998, Brass, edition of 6 plus 2 AP, 137 x 78 x 48 cm, courtesy of Hauser and Wirth. |
Parasol unit foundation Visible Invisible: Against the Security of the Real focuses on the work of four painters and one sculptor, all of whom take on the challenge of creating works that fall somewhere between figuration and abstraction. None of the works represent perceived reality; rather they each constitute a world of their own. While the inspiration and resulting creativity of each artist is distinctly different, seen together these works share an indisputable material presence and exhibit an intriguing dynamism that requires an active dialogue with the viewer. Artists have always aspired to render visible the invisible forces within the visible rather than to Cecily Brown’s works often take as their departure point the vast repertoire of the Old Masters, such as Tintoretto and Rubens. Her paintings immediately appeal to the senses, not only because of their audacious subjects, densely packed surfaces, and the layers of flesh-coloured paint she often uses, but also because of the tension created by her use of recognisable and unrecognisable imagery. Hans Josephsohn’s cast brass sculptures are devoted entirely to the human form and usually depict the classical themes of sculpture. Their simplified boulder-like shapes show how the artist elevates figuration in order to go beyond it. These sculptures seem imbued with feelings that may at any moment discernibly express themselves, while at the same time containing emotions within the confines of their often indefinable and mysterious forms. Shaun McDowell’s paintings are based on his personal perception of the world around him. Painting from nature or a model, his work invariably shows an artist in awe, either of his model or the beauty of nature. Using the energetic brushwork of an accomplished colourist he successfully blends figure and surroundings. His paintings reveal the temptations of a painter who wants to both disclose his feelings and be protective of them. Katy Moran and Maaike Schoorel both, in their different ways, integrate a poised measure into their fascination with the activity of painting, and often use existing imagery as a departure point for their work. Moran works the paint with considerable energy into her small canvases until they vaguely allude to some recognisable figuration. She clearly seeks to render visible that which is invisible, while at the same time the work becomes a clear entity in itself. Schoorel uses pale and delicate touches of pastel colours to make marks that allude to a visible world, and in the process obliges us to reflect on and discover this world, which at first glance appears to be invisible. But with slow, almost meditative observation the viewer gains access to imagery in which nothing is left to chance. The works of these five artists are as different as they could be from one another, but each of them reveals a clear artistic tenet to expand the creative possibilities of painting and sculpture in ways that challenge both themselves and viewers. All the works in this exhibition exemplify the effort these artists make to render visible the invisible forces that ought to be central to each work of art. This exhibition is curated by Ziba Ardalan de Weck and is accompanied by a new publication.
Cecily Brown, Aujourd'hui Rose, 2005, oil on linen, 195.6cm x 139.7 cm, collection of Cecily Brown, courtesy of Gagosian Gallery, image credit Robert McKeever. |
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Shaun McDowell, Untitled, 2009, Oil stick on board, 119 x 157 cm, courtesy of Hannah Barry Gallery, Image credit Stephen White. |
Benchung, Sunflower No. 2, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 165 x 125 cm |
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Benchung, Sunflower No. 089, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 165 x 125 cm.
Benchung, Sunflower, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 120 cm. |
Rossi & Rossi Ltd Born Benpa Chungdak in Lhasa in 1971, Tibetan Artist Benchung studied as an exchange student in the Department of Graffiti Design at Tianjin Academy of the Arts in China from 1989 to 1992 when he moved to the Department of Arts at Tibet University in Lhasa. Here he gained a BA in Fine Art and, more recently, an MA in Visual Art at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway. His work has been exhibited not only in Lhasa and Beijing but also as far afield as Tokyo, Oslo, Königswinter (Germany) and New York, as well as other American cities, but this is his first exhibition in the UK. Benchung’s paintings are like a film sequence, where the narrator attempts to weave a continuous tale but the continuity is repeatedly broken. The setting is idyllic, with abundant flora and a constantly blue sky. Cropped male figures dominate his paintings, often with an absurd juxtaposition of elements: a headless figure hovers over a field of sunflowers, a man seen from the back with a mourning band on his arm holds a gun against his own sunflower head. Much of the work is infused with humour, as in Portrait (fig. 4) where a man in a suit has a bucket over his head. Behind this imagery lie questions of control, both political and mental. Despite the familiarity of flowers and colours, we enter a world where logic is contorted: the paintings are cropped and all the figures’ heads are severed. In much of his work, Benchung’s use of colour amplifies the charged atmosphere of the paintings. A thin layer of film covers the objects like a veil, regardless of the differences in local colour. The shadows in his work glow with saturated and intensified colour. Fabio Rossi has travelled extensively in Tibet and China, meeting artists working there as well as other Tibetan artists working in the West. As a result, over the past two years he has staged a series of solo exhibitions devoted to contemporary Asian artists, particularly Tibetan, bringing them to the forefront of the contemporary art market.
Benchung, Heaven #1, 2005, Acrylic on cotton canvas, 83 x 58.5 cm.
Benchung, Lotus, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 165 x 125 cm. |
Benchung, Heaven #2, 2005, Acrylic on cotton canvas, 32 c 60 cm. |
WeeGee, After the Opera … at Sammy's Nightclub on the Bowery, c. 1944 © Weegee/ International Center of Photography/ Getty Images courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery, Silver gelatin print 11 x 14". |
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WeeGee, Out of the River, February 24, 1942 © Weegee/ International Center of Photography/ Getty Images courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery.
WeeGee, Henry Rosen (l) and Harvey Stemmer (center) were arrested for bribing basketball players, January 25, 1945, 1945, © Weegee/ International Center of Photography/ Getty Images courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery
WeeGee, Billie Dauscha and Mabel Sidney (r), Bowery Entertainers, December 4, 1944, 1944, © Weegee / International Center of Photography/ Getty Images courtesy ICP and Michael Hoppen Gallery. |
Michael Hoppen Contemporary Always in the right place at the right time, Weegee’s lense was perpetually aimed the visceral and sometimes violent city of New York. In 1993, Wilma Fellig, Weegee’s widow, bequeathed his entire archive of original prints to the International Center of Photography in New York. Michael Hoppen Contemporary is showing selected pieces of Weegee's work including many images never previously seen in the UK. Weegee photographed New York in the 1930s and 1940s in the same iconic and instantly recognizable way Woody Allen filmed the city in the 1970s. Weegee’s voyeuristic eye sought out the harsh realities of the urban experience, but also the joie de vivre and carefree attitude which typified the years between wars. Born in 1899 in the Austrian province of Galicia, today part of Ukraine, Weegee (real name Usher, then Arthur Fellig) was the second of seven children from Jewish parents. Weegee's family left Europe in 1910 for the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where Weegee grew up. He left home at 15 and in 1917 got a job in a photo studio and became assistant to a cameraman. In 1921, he got a part-time position at the New York Times and its legendary agency Wide World Photos, soon afterwards switching to Acme News pictures. Eventually, frustrated with the lack of recognition for his work, and not having his name on photographs, he became a freelance news photographer by late 1935. Weegee’s images bridge the gap between art, evidence, and photojournalism. His nickname was a phonetic rendering of ouija,as in ouija board, due to his sixth sense of being able to arrive at a scene minutes after the occurrence of a crime. In 1938, Fellig was the only New York newspaper reporter with a permit to have a portable police-band short wave radio. The trunk of his car was a carefully maintained darkroom, to enable him to deliver his freelance images to the newspapers as speedily as possible. He worked predominantly at night listening closely to radio broadcasts, often beating the NYPD to the scene. It also meant he was on hand to document the raucous night life in the Bowery, Harlem and The Village, and he went on to document the society events and functions of the era. His photographs were taken with the very basic press photographer equipment, a Graflek and blue flashbulbs which gave his work such graphic qualities. He had no formal photographic training being entirely self taught, and was a relentless self-promoter. As an adjunct to Weegee’s work, Michael Hoppen Contemporary is also showing images by Sergei Vasiliev, and Stan Healy. Sergei Vasiliev's graphic and unflinching photographs show the grim reality of the Russian prison system and some of the characters that inhabit it. The tattoo motifs which Vasiliev was helping to document for the KGB represent the uncensored lives of the criminal classes, ranging from violence and pornography to politics. This was an underclass with its own caste and judicial system, and the history of each individual was instantly recognizable to the other. Edward "Stan" Healy was born in Missoula, Montana and as a local newspaper photojournalist documented crime scenes and local news stories. Healy has been praised for an ability to capture a story in a single image and do so with an eye for composition. However, he also had a taste for the provocative and disturbing, and his images can be shocking. all the more so because of the parochial backdrop of mid 20th century Missoula, Montana — a small city whose boom years at the forefront of the logging industry were sadly over.
WeeGee, Max is rushing in the morning's bagels to a restaurant on 2nd Ave for the Morning trade, c. 1940 © Weegee / International Center of Photography/ Getty Images courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery Silver Gelatin print 11 x 14". |
WeeGee, Brown, Charles, unknown photographer, courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery Silver gelatin print on index card with fingerprints 5 x 8". |
