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The Raft of George W. Bush, New Mexico, 2006, gelatin silver print, 6 x 20 inches. Courtesy Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago; Silverstein Photography, New York; Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris |
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The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Joel-Peter Witkin
Jun 6 - Jul 26
in the Main & Dové Galleries
It is easy to speak in gothic or darkly poetic terms about the photographs of Joel-Peter Witkin, to be taken with the images of black-masked nudes in bondage, his disfigured or deceased sitters, or his pre-op transsexuals who inhabit his scenes from the 1980s and 1990s. But throughout Witkin’s career the greatest influence to his unconventional—and by many accounts macabre—imagery has been art history itself, including specific works by key artists spanning 700 years, from Giotto to Hopper, Picasso to Rubens; if you include his references to Classical and Hellenistic Greek sculpture, his influences span over 2000 years of art.
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell takes its title from a poem by William Blake, a poet whom Witkin has long admired. The exhibition seeks to draw an arc across 20 years of art production, finding a common thread of sourcing art history, not as a means to explain or decode the work, but as a way of accessing his eclectic imagery. Witkin’s approach to his work is rooted in classicism, highly structured and yet deeply intuitive, having as much in common with the worlds of fashion and film as it does with nineteenth-century history painting and twentieth-century studio photography.
The 22 works on view include his signature multiple figure tableaux, such as the recent, and unusually political, photograph entitled The Raft of George W. Bush, an homage to Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa that features 17 figures, the most he has ever used. Other works focus on his interest in still life, with references to seventeenth-century Dutch art and Surrealist artists like Magritte and Man Ray. Also on view are his collages, which he calls “maquettes,” some produced after the fact, featuring images from art history books, Polaroids, and drawings with notations; such a practice is rare for most photographers, but for Witkin is an integral part of the creative process.
His scenes are staged at multiple sites, from European rooftops to the interiors of remote palaces, from locations such as New Mexico (his home base), Prague, Rome, Los Angeles, Paris, and others that to this day remain a mystery. The set creation is a collaboration amongst a cast of artists and models, including makeup specialists and scene painters asked to render specific backdrops in styles ranging from Mexican Muralism to French Rococo. Witkin serves as artistic director, as well as prop maker and seeker, spending hours finding the perfect swath of fabric or the singular antique cup, or creating the perfect counterpoint object for an interior from papier-mâché or metal. Days of conception and preparation sometimes lead to only an hour of shooting, with the resulting work only hinting at the complexity of the process, not to mention the stories behind the sitters themselves.
ARTIST
BIO >
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MORE FROM THE EXHIBITION
EXHIBITION SPONSORS
This exhibition is sponsored by The FUNd at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, the Festival of the Photograph, and Bill Chapman and Shannon Worrell. Additional support provided by Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, IL.
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