Marlon Krieger's Blog

My latest Promo Card

2010-03-02T10:01:00.000-08:00

Viviane Sassen @ Danziger Projects

2010-03-02T08:43:00.000-08:00

March 4 - April 10, 2010
Opening Reception March 4 6-8pm

Over the past several years, Viviane Sassen has emerged as one of the freshest voices in European photography. Already an acclaimed fashion photographer whose work appears regularly in magazines such as French VOGUE, Purple, V, and i-D, in 2001 Sassen began regular trips to Africa, where she had lived as a child. Her work there moved away from fashion and documentary and towards an ongoing body of collaborative portraits.

In this work she has established a visual vocabulary that is stylized, symbolic and mysterious. Her aesthetic combines a sense of childhood memory, where scenes are crystallized and highly saturated with color with a photographer's sensitivity to the body and surface. The strong presence of shadow and darkness in Sassen's images provokes more questions than answers. If there is such a thing as magical realism in photography, these photographs embody it.

This exhibition, Sassen's first American showing, draws on work from three series -'Die Son Sien Alles' (The Sun Sees Everything), made in South Africa; 'Flamboya', made in Zambia and East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania); and the series 'Ultra Violet', made in Ghana. These portraits combine the spontaneous with the staged, and often come out of ideas that Sasson carries in a sketchbook of inspirations for future compositions. These ideas are shared with her subjects as the starting point for each photograph. Critic Vince Aletti commented, "Her photographs tease convention but with witty and unexpected results, partly because her subjects are all young Africans who seem to have enjoyed collaborating with her. She tends to treat the body as a sculptural element — a malleable shape that combines with blocks of shadow and bright color in arrangements that sometimes read like cut-paper collages, bold and abstract but full of vibrant life."

Danziger Projects
534 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Annalisa Iadicicco @ BronxArtSpace

2010-03-01T10:22:00.000-08:00

John Doe © Annalisa Iadicicco

Wednesday, March 3rd, 6pm - 9pm
Saturday, March 6th, 7pm - 10pm
BronxArtSpace: 305 East 140th Street, Bronx NY 10454

There will be live performances, experimental film, and visual art. The event will be free (donations accepted). The Synthetic Zero loft events will be part of the Bronx Culture Trolley. Note: the visual art exhibit will be open Fridays and Saturdays 2-7pm during the month of March 5-26.

Annalisa Iadicicco will have one of her installations on display among many other great artists. For a full list of artists check out Synthetic zero's website.

Annalisa Iadicicco

Helen Levitt: her photographs and movies 1 year after her death

2010-02-26T08:56:00.000-08:00

all images by Helen Levitt

"Helen Levitt found magic on the grimy streets of New York. Her photographs from the '30s and '40s capture the grit and vigor and humor of the city. And she kept on shooting for much of her life."
excerpt from an NPR Interview

Helen Levitt passed 1 year ago this March, Laurence Miller Gallery will begin a month long screening of an extraordinary 15-minute film she made with Janice Loeb and James Agee, "In the Street". It will be open to the public and is free.

I'm sure there will be plenty of her work around the city this coming month so look for it.

20 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

A movie about dolphins at "The Cove"

2010-02-25T09:19:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen it yet, or heard of it:
Dolphins arguably are the largest, non-human, brained mammal.

Dolphins communicate through language.

Dolphins have been know to save the lives of humans, sailors drowning have attributed the aid of a dolphin in their survival.

Dolphin meat is sold, loaded with toxic chemicals in place of whale meat and to school children.

A flipper look-a-like sells for $150,000.00

During the Greek era, harming a Dolphin was punishable by death.

In Japan, at a Nature Reserve called the cove, the slaughter of thousands of dolphins is occurring. Their cries for help and their massacre was covertly filmed and recorded by evading the police, hidden cameras, unmanned helicopters and with countless hours spent hiding on the edge of a cliff.

"But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt. The nature of what they do is so chilling -- and the consequences are so dangerous to human health -- they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it."

This movie has won almost everywhere award available to Documentary film making

http://thecovemovie.com/

Music tonight-Dafnis Prieto in NY

2010-02-23T15:01:00.000-08:00

Tonight Tuesday 2-23-10
Rose Live Music
345 Grand Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

The Proverb Trio with Dafnis Prieto on drums, Kokayi on vocals and Jason Lindner on Keyboard.

Dafnis Prieto's revolutionary drumming technique has had a powerful impact on the latin and jazz music scene. He studied at the national school of Music in Havana and by the age of 16 had toured with Carlos Maza, Ramon Valle, and with "Columna B". Most recently he has played along side Henry Threadgill, Steve Coleman, Chico and Arturo O'Farril, Dave Samuels & The Caribbean Jazz project, Michel Camilo, Roy Hargrove, Andrew Hill and many more.

He has performed at an array of renowned venues from the Lincoln Center and the Whitney Museum to the Red Sea Jazz festival.

This should be an great opportunity to see him in an intimate setting

Dafnis Prieto's website

Nonoo Lyons 2010

2010-02-19T15:20:00.001-08:00

Below is a slide show set to music from the Nonoo Lyons Fall/Winter Collection 2010

Hair and make-up: Fumi Nagai
Location: The Explorer's Club
Models: Kim Green & Mila Filatova
Photography by Marlon Krieger

Thank you to Misha Nonoo, Deborha Lyons and everyone involved.

Please view with your volume on!

if you can't see the video please follow this link my blog

see see additional images please visit Flickr

W. Eugene Smith at the New York public Library Lincoln Center

2010-02-19T10:41:00.000-08:00

The Jazz Loft Project at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center through May 22, 2010.

Photographs by W. Euegene Smith

In the early 50's Smith moved into a loft building on sixth Avenue, which had already become a hangout for artists, writers and especially jazz musicians, who rehearsed and jammed there. Among the visitors to the loft: Thelonious Monk, Zoot Sims, Bill Evans, Steve Swallow, Robert Frank, Salvador Dali, Norman Mailer and Diane Arbus and more. he shot over 40,000 frames on 35mm and recorded thousands of hours of music and sounds between 1957 and 1965.

This book is a stunning mix of New York history, jazz and photography. Check it out, there will be more than 200 images, several hours of audio, and 16mm film footage of Smith working in the loft. It's well worth a glimpse into history.

excerpt from the book:

January 29, 1960

W. Eugene Smith sits at the fourth-floor window of his dilapidated loft at 821 Sixth Avenue, New York City, near the corner of Twenty-eighth Street, the heart of Manhattan’s wholesale flower district. He peers out at the street below, several cameras at hand loaded with different lenses and film speeds. His window faces east from the west side of Sixth Avenue. The dawn light begins to rise behind the Empire State Building and other Midtown skyscrapers looming over the modest neighborhood. Three musicians stand together on the sidewalk below talking and laughing. One holds an upright bass in its case, another has a saxophone case slung over his shoulder, and the other is smoking a cigarette. It is six o’clock in the morning; the temperature is a moderate thirty degrees. The musicians are going home after a night-long jam session. Smith snaps a few pictures.

After a long radio silence a little art to warm back up

2010-02-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

I've been off line for a while so I thought I'd get back into it by posting my newest painting and a table I recently finished:

Table I made:

I should be posting some new photography as well in the next few days

Additional ways to donate

2010-01-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

Thank you to all of you who responded. I've been talking to many of you about your experiences in trying to help. Here are some additional resources. Please, if you have any information that would help people decide or find ways to help post a comment. Let us know your experience.

American Airlines is apparently taking doctors and nurses to Haiti for free: you can call 212 697 9767

Ups will ship anything 50lbs or less for Free to Haiti

and some more great organizations to donate to:

-UNICEF.org (for whom children are the first priority)
-HOPEInternational.org (my college friend Pete is the president, so I know it's trustworthy)
-PartnerswithHaiti.org (my uncle is the treasurer, so, again, I know the money will go where it is needed)
-Foodforthepoor.org
-Doctorswithoutborders.org
-RedCross.org

Thanks again for all your input.

Marlon Krieger

Trusted ways to donate to Haiti

2010-01-13T17:36:00.000-08:00

Please help in some way:

AmeriCares has pledged $5 million to Haitian quake relief, and is soliciting donations to a general emergency disaster relief fund to help it accomplish that.

CARE is sending relief workers into the city of Port-au-Prince and needs funds to support its efforts. Suggested donations range from $50 to $1,000, but you can name your own amount if you prefer.

Catholic Relief Services has an office in Haiti, and luckily it’s still standing even though one of its neighbors collapsed. The organization is accepting donations of any amount.

Direct Relief International has committed up to $1 million in aid through two on-the-ground partners, and is sending containers of medical material aid.

Oxfam has 200 people on the ground to deal with the crisis, and began its efforts by trying to get clean water to victims of the quake. One of its staffers recorded a podcast describing the situation. You can donate on the American or UK site, depending on where you’re located.

Yele Haiti is sponsored by prominent Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean. You can donate through its website or via text message as described in the next segment.

UPDATE: Google Support Disaster Relief is a website Google has updated to respond to the crisis. Google has promised $1 million in support, but the site is also an easy place to donate money to either UNICEF or CARE. It also provides hospital addresses and links to sources for news on the situation.

Donate With a Text Message

Musician Wyclef Jean has used Twitter to rally web users to contribute to his grassroots Yele Haiti earthquake fund. He’s urged his followers to text “Yele” to the number 501501. If you send the text, the organization will receive $5. The amount will be added to your next cell phone bill. Consider retweeting Wyclef’s updates and get some of your Twitter followers to donate, too.

There’s another texting option spreading through Twitter. You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 via the Red Cross. Thanks to ABC News for pointing these out.

Laurence Miller Gallery Exhibitiions

2010-01-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

It's been a couple of months of killer exhibitions in New York; Kandinsky at the Guggenheim, Tim Robbins at the Moma, Man Ray at the Jewish Museuem, David Hockny at Pace Wildenstein and many more. January is off to a good start with two simultaneous showings at the Laurence Miller Gallery next week.

Laurence Miller Gallery is exhibiting 15 color photographs by the forty-eight year old French photographer Denis Darzacq. HYPER refers to the new garish supermarkets in Paris and Rouen where consumer goods, brightly packaged and presented, make for a vivid and contemporary backdrop for his pictures. Darzacq brings street dancers, mostly young men and women in their late teens and early twenties into these stores and asks them to perform their leaps, jumps, twirls, and other gravity-defying movements. Darzacq's working methods are wonderfully captured in a documentary film by Marie-Clotilde Chery. The photographs explore the tension between being and having, between the human body and the built environment. They offer a fresh, witty and intensely colorful commentary on global consumerism and freedom of spirit.

20 West 57th Street, 3rd Floor
new York, NY
REception Thursday, January 14 6-8pm

Featuring Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Philippe Halsman, Andre Kertesz,
Jacques Henri Lartigue, Helen Levitt, Ramon Masatas, Jerry Uelsmann, Garry Winogrand

Simultaneously being shown is "Body Language", a selection of twenty historic photographs that celebrate the language of forms created by the body in motion. Included are a mid-1970's Garry Winogrand of leaping cheerleaders, the classic 1926 Andre Kertesz "Satiric Dancer", two "divers" by Aaron Siskind from his series "The Terrors and Pleasures of Levitation", a Jerry Uelsmann nude floating over the sea (shown above), and Helen Levitt's wonderful view of two uninhibited children dancing in the street.

20 West 57th Street, 3rd Floor
new York, NY
REception Thursday, January 14 6-8pm

Man Ray Exhibition

2009-12-30T09:13:00.000-08:00

Visit the blog at http://www.themkphotographyblog.com/

Man Ray, The Art of Reinvention at the Jewish Museum
Through March 14th, 2010
5th Avenue at 92nd street
thejewishmuseum.org

Legendary Dada and Surrealist artist Man Ray (August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976), born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. Best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography, Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media and considered himself a painter above all. He was also a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. He is noted for his photograms, which he renamed "rayographs" after himself.

The Real story of Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T12:54:00.000-08:00

Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast. And that did happen - once.

The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.

But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.

In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared "A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.

Cheered by their "victory", the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with a many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible.

Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of "thanksgiving" to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts -- where it remained on display for 24 years.

The killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War -- on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.

This story doesn't have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at the big feast. But we need to learn our true history so it won't ever be repeated. Next Thanksgiving, when you gather with your loved ones to Thank God for all your blessings, think about those people who only wanted to live their lives and raise their families. They, also took time out to say "thank you" to Creator for all their blessings.

by Susan Bates

It is sad to think that this happened, but it is important to understand all of the story and not just the happy part. Today the town of Plymouth Rock has a Thanksgiving ceremony each year in remembrance of the first Thanksgiving. There are still Wampanoag people living in Massachusetts. In 1970, they asked one of them to speak at the ceremony to mark the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrim's arrival. Here is part of what was said:

"Today is a time of celebrating for you -- a time of looking back to the first days of white people in America. But it is not a time of celebrating for me. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People. When the Pilgrims arrived, we, the Wampanoags, welcomed them with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end. That before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a tribe. That we and other Indians living near the settlers would be killed by their guns or dead from diseases that we caught from them. Let us always remember, the Indian is and was just as human as the white people."

Patrick Demarchelier in NY

2009-11-25T09:01:00.000-08:00

Patrick Demarchelie published by Steidldangin

Tuesday December 8th, 2009
exclusive book signing from 6:30 to 7:30pm

Clic Gallery
255 center street
new York, NY

Patrick Demarchelier was born outside Paris in 1943 and has lived in the US since 1975. His photos regularly appear in Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, Newsweek and Elle. Beginning in 1989, he was the official photographer of Princess Diana of Wales, becoming the first non-Briton to become an official photographer for the Royal Family. In 2007, he became an Officer dans l'ordre des Arts et Lettres, and his work was the subject of the retrospective Patrick Demarchelier: Images et Mode at the Petit Palais in Paris.

Axel Crieger

2009-11-25T08:46:00.000-08:00

The new website is up!
http://www.axelcrieger.com/

His digital paintings combine a variety of photographs,
effects and designs, soundtracks and self - written and - recorded narrations.

Axel Crieger has studied visual communications and has
worked as a photographer, director and designer for
international clients like Levis, Time Warner, BMW,
Polaroid, Heineken, Shell, Daimler, Ford, ARD,
Random House, RAI and others, in New York,
Los Angeles, Paris, London and Milan.

He met with Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys painted over
one of his works, to declare the result „best of the show“.
Oscar winner Michael Blake published his book
„American Night“. His work has received critical acclaim and numerous awards.

His pictures have found empty nails on walls in places like Berlin, New York, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo, Hamburg, Kitzbühel, Rome, Munich and Los Angeles.

Man Ray Exhibition

2009-11-21T08:03:00.001-08:00

"Le Violon d'Ingres," 1924. Rosalind and Melvin Jacobs Collection. "Lingerie," print from the portfolio Elictricite, 1931. Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New York. Museum purchase with funds provided by Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein. "Gift," c. 1958 (replica of 1921 original). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. James Thrall Soby Fund, 1966. "Rayograph," 1926, gelatin silver print. Private Collection, New York. All images copyright 2009 Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.

Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention continues at The Jewish Museum through March 14, 2010. 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York, NY

A few images from California

2009-11-18T14:25:00.000-08:00

From a magical trip to Joshua Tree, Amboy and Big Sur. Just a couple snaps..

The Iron Curtain Diaries - 1989 2009

2009-11-09T15:13:00.000-08:00

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall

For a great interactive on the Berlin wall including maps and videos:
The Iron Curtain Diaries - 1989 2009

if you speak German check the Spiegel site for incredible footage from the last 20 years including interviews;
http://www.spiegel.de/sptv/0,1518,659283,00.html

Marlon @ Christie's, 20 Rockefeller Plaza

2009-11-06T10:34:00.000-08:00

One of my photographs from "Autumn Leaves"(Leaves of Autumn) will be up for auction at Christie's on Friday November 13th in support of the Alliance of the Arts.

For a list of the 16 Artists and their pieces go to
Kiptonart.com/magazine

Tickets:
Nonprofit/Artist — One ticket at a discounted rate for nonprofit employees and artists — $50.00
Friend of the Arts — Single ticket — $100.00
Supporter — Two $100 tickets — $200.00
Host — Two tickets at $250 each — $500.00
Leader — Four tickets at $250 each — $1,000.00
Benefactor — Ten tickets at $250 each — $2,500.00
For tickets click here

Press release:
NEW YORK, November 4th, 2009—The Alliance for the Arts will partner with the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) to host the annual Friends of the Arts Party at Christie’s, opening the galleries for an exclusive preview of the much-heralded Latin American Art show, cocktails and music on Friday the 13th of November, 6:30-8:30 pm.

The Friends Party began in 2003 as a way to support the Alliance’s work as a leader in arts advocacy and to engage artists, policymakers and patrons in conversation about the arts.

“As we face a time when support for the arts is more crucial than ever, the Friends party is an ideal opportunity for younger New Yorkers to become arts advocates,” said Randall Bourscheidt, President of the Alliance for the Arts.

The Alliance’s new partnership with NYPLI is an effort to economize and share resources and serve our mutual commitment to making New York the most accessible and livable city possible. ”The idea of bringing together two critical organizations for the good of the city is a powerful one,” said Michael Rothenberg, Executive Director of NYLPI. ”We expect this is an idea that endures beyond the recession.”

Event leaders include Ashton Hawkins and John L. Moore III, Paul Beirne, Robert C. Clauser, Kipton Cronkite, William Earle, Nick Hockens, Werner H. Kramarsky, Dr. J. Marc Michel Léonard and Michael Yeager, Helen Marx, David and Elizabeth Netto, Susan D. Ralston, Jane Gregory Rubin, Joe Versace, Enzo Viscusi and Alan Wanzenberg. Other special guests include public officials Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, State Senator Liz Krueger and State Assemblyman Jonathan L. Bing, and artists Cornelia Guest, William Ivey Long and Tor Seidler.

In addition to Christie’s, sponsors include Eni, ForbesLife, KiptonART, NYCharities.org, City Winery and Diamond Standard Vodka. KiptonART will present a silent auction featuring KiptonART artists, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Alliance.

Christie’s is located at 20 Rockefeller Plaza on 49th Street between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas.

THE ALLIANCE FOR THE ARTS serves the entire cultural community through research and advocacy and informs the public through cultural guides and calendars. Now in its 33rd year, the Alliance publishes information on the arts and cultural events in New York City as well as studies highlighting the importance of the arts to the economy and to education.

The Alliance helps government and civil leaders understand the importance of the arts to New York City by making the case for more support for culture from all levels of government. One of the ways it does this is through the Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Fellowship for Public Policy and the Arts, which was inaugurated in 2002 with the objective of training cultural policy leaders through engagement with the Alliance’s advocacy work.

Congratulations to Lu Guang

2009-10-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Lu Guang for winning the coveted Grant in Humanistic Photography by the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. He has created striking imagery over the past 5 years documenting the ecological disasters in China.

Born in 1961 in Zhejiang Province, China, Lu Guang has been enamored with photography from the moment he held the camera for the first time in 1980 when he was a factory worker in his hometown of Yongkang County. From 1993 to 1995, he studied at the Fine Arts Academy of Tsinghua University in Beijing. A freelancer since 1993, his focus has been stories on major social and environmental issues in his own country. His photographic projects include essays on gold diggers, small coal mines, the SARS epidemic, drug addiction, AIDS villages in Henan Province, the Qinghai-Tibet railway.

Lu Guang has been documenting the ecological disasters in China resulting from the rapid growth of the economy since 2005, focusing on environmental pollution and the problem of schistosomiasis (bilharzia). Over the last three decades, peoples' living standards have constantly been on the rise in the country. At the same time, industrial pollution has brought serious consequences for public health and for the environment at large.

Addiction & Love

2009-10-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

If you can't see the video please follow this link:
http://www.themkphotographyblog.com/

a slide show Addiction & Love

Legendary jazz musician Paquito D'Rivera @ Brooklyn Center

2009-10-20T17:12:00.000-07:00

I highly recommend this for a night of incredible music and dance.

From World Stages: Dance
Brooklyn Center Presents

SERIES PREMIERE!

Luna Negra Dance Theater
with Special Guests Turtle Island Quartet
and Paquito D'Rivera

Dedicated to the works of Latino choreographers, Luna Negra Dance Theater celebrates its 10th anniversary by teaming up with the bold Turtle Island Quartet and legendary jazz musician Paquito D’Rivera, both multiple Grammy Award winners, in a celebration of the rich music and dance traditions of Cuba with their newest work entitled Danzón.

Sunday, October 25, 2009 - 2pm Matinee
Walt Whitman Theatre

Tickets:
General Admission: $30
Multibuy: $27
WorldPack: $25

Lumenhouse tonight

2009-10-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

Corporeality, an exhibiton of works by Katharyn Laranger, Jonathan Nissenbaum, Emily Orling and Stephen Workman. Co-curated by Aurora Robson and Mariko Tanaka, Corporeality examine physical states through transfiguration and metamorphosis of the corporeal body. The opening will take place tonight from 7-9 pm. There will be complimentary refreshments and the artists will be present.

Exhibition on view from october 17-November 15th
Gallery Hours: 12-5pm, Saturdays and Sundays. Weekdays by appointment only

Lumenhouse
47 Beaver Street
Brooklyn, NY
www.lumenhouse.com
info@lumenhouse.com

In London; New museum opens for "outsider art"

2009-10-16T14:51:00.000-07:00

{Brett's museum is all about art created by people without formal training, who live "outside our modern society"}

Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE

"The boundary between 'normal' primitive art and the artistry of the insane is blurry," says Bruno Bischofberger, an art dealer based in Zurich with a sizeable collection of folk art. Yet "outsider art" is distinct from folk art, he explains, as it is often associated with the mentally ill. Indeed, many of the biggest discoveries of the genre were found in the archives of psychiatric hospitals.

This is perhaps why the term "outsider" irks James Brett, a filmmaker, entrepreneur and the founder of Britain's first museum dedicated to the work of non-traditional artists. The Museum of Everything [1] opened its doors in London's Primrose Hill neighbourhood on October 14th, timed to coincide with London's Frieze Art Fair [2]. But unlike the preening, self-conscious types who frequent the parties and gallery stalls of this contemporary-art extravaganza, Brett's museum is all about art created by people without formal training, who live "outside our modern society". Housed in a former dairy, the collection includes more than 200 paintings, drawings, sculptures and installations by around 95 artists, all of whom simply felt compelled to make something.

"There is a real difference", Brett says, explaining his preference for the term "non-traditional" instead of "outsider" in classifying these artists. "We also do not highlight that people have a disability, because often that makes people pre-define it in their minds."

The notion of outsider art was born in the late 19th century, when enlightened European psychiatrists began noticing the aesthetic value of their patients' artwork, often created with whatever fabric or materials [3] they could get hold of. In 1922 Hans Prinzhorn, a psychiatrist and art historian in Heidelberg, Germany, published "Bildnerei der Geisteskranken [4]" ("Artistry of the Mentally Ill [5]"), a study of art made by the mentally ill, after amassing a collection of more than 5,000 [6]examples of art from 450 patients in mental hospitals across Europe. His colleagues in psychiatry had reservations about his decision to collect the works and publish the book, but it was enthusiastically received by Max Ernst, Jean Dubuffet, Paul Klee and other avant-garde artists. They were fascinated by the raw quality of the art produced at the margins of society. Dubuffet in particular became a champion of what he called l'art brut, by which he meant uncooked art or art in its most immediate form.

At about the same time, in 1921, Walter Morgenthaler, another psychiatrist, published "Ein Geisteskranker als Künstler [7]" ("A Psychiatric Patient as Artist"), a book about the work of a patient called Adolf Wölfli [8], who had worked for 30 years in his small cell in a Swiss mental hospital. Wölfli, who had been physically and sexually abused as a child, suffered from psychosis that led to severe hallucinations. After his arrest for child molestation, he was kept in isolation because he was violent. At some point he started to draw, eventually producing huge drawings bound in 45 mighty tomes, with ornate autobiographical writing recounting his mind's travels and exploits.

In the English-speaking world, awareness and knowledge of art brut or outsider art spread slowly. The discovery of the monumental work by Henry Darger, a Chicago-based artist, helped to make the artform better known in America. Darger, a hospital porter, lived alone in a rented room for more than 40 years, writing and drawing a 15-volume epic, "In the Realms of the Unreal [9]". He created an eerie, powerful world of seemingly innocent children in idyllic settings, who must enter horrific scenes of carnage and torture in a brutal battle against child-slave owners (pictured top). Some of Darger's works are 30-feet long and many, including what is on display at the museum, are painted on both sides of the paper. Darger made himself the star of the narrative as the children's protector.

Darger’s work has a room by itself in the labyrinthine Museum of Everything, which has numerous smallish rooms, staircases and one big hall-like space. His pieces are arranged so that visitors can see both sides of each one, zig-zagging along the pictorial path of his story-telling. At first Darger's images enchant with their children’s story-book prettiness. It is only at second sight that one perceives what is so deeply unsettling about these scenes--their violence and bizarre sexuality.

Shortly before his death in 1973, Darger's landlord, a photographer, came across his work and immediately recognised its artistic merit. Today his art is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the American Folk Art Museum in New York, the Centre for Intuitive and Outsider Art and the Museum of Modern Art in Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In Asia one of the best-known examples of outsider art is Nek Chand's Rock Garden [10] in Chandigarh in northern India. Chand started building in secret on government land, making his sculptures with recycled materials from demolition sites. His work was discovered 18 years later in 1975, when it had grown into a 12-acre area of interlinked courtyards, each filled with hundreds of pottery-covered concrete sculptures of dancers, musicians and animals. This makeshift sculpture park was in serious danger of being demolished by the authorities, but Chand managed to save it by getting public opinion on his side. In 1976, the park was inaugurated as a public space. Chand was given a salary and a workforce of 50 labourers to maintain his magical kingdom, which eventually grew to a 25-acre complex.

Chand’s work is one of the central displays at the new Museum of Everything. Its appeal is a bit more straightforward, with its brightly coloured rock sculptures and rag dolls. Chand was fascinated by the idea of creating something from nothing, and he skilfully managed to transform urban and industrial waste into beauty.

"Britain has never had a permanent home for artwork created outside mainstream art circles," says Brett. "Call it art brut, self taught, outsider art, what you will, these names mean very little and they rarely do justice to the astonishing range of private and personal imagery, made often by those in the most difficult circumstances. It is like stepping into another world."

Brett explains that the works on view have been chosen for their artistic merit, not for the (often fascinating) biographies of the artists behind them. Wandering around the rooms here, visitors are left with a sense of what people can create--urgently, beautifully--without a thought for the art world.

Picture credit: all images courtesy of the Museum of Everything
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(Vendeline von Bredow [12] is a business correspondent of The Economist [13], based in London. She is on sabbatical to research and write the authorised biography of Gianni Agnelli. Her last article for More Intelligent life was about Alexander von Vegesack [14], director of the Vitra Design Museum, in Germany.)

www.moreintelligentlife.com