Author: dblauadmin

Published by Daniel Blau, 2011.

 

Edited by Daniel Blau and Klaus Maaz.

 

Texts by K. Maaz, S. Picasso and A.J P. Meyer.

 

The fish hook derives its form from its practical intention – to catch a fish. But in cultures where fishing is and always has been a main livelihood, the crafting of fish hooks becomes an Art. This volume features more than 600 fish hooks used by the peoples of the Pacific Islands, with life-size illustrations and accompanying texts. This is the product of a collaboration of private collectors and is the first extensive monograph on the subject since the 1928 volume Pacific Island Record: Fishhooks by Harry Beasley.
 
Purchase your copy here  
 

 
 

From Silverpoint to Silver Screen
Early Drawings of Andy Warhol 1949-1959

 

Campbell´s soup cans, the banana album cover from The Velvet Underground and quirky colour-adjusted panels of film stars and artists – Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson – are all immediately recognisable as Andy Warhol´s work. But he was also a skilled draftsman, filling early sketchbooks with freehand drawings of still lifes and portraits of friends.
From Silverpoint to Silver Screen brings together more than 100 of Warhol´s early drawings, from the 1950s. They show great great technical ability and are executed in Warhol´s characteristic blotted-line-technique, which involved tracing projected photographic images onto paper and blotting the inked figures to creative variations on a theme. Many drawings were completed during Warhol´s early years in New York and include award-winning commercial illustriations and assignments from his studies at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Other images demonstrate his take on the dark side of society. The book includes insightful essays on the young Andy Warhol and the art scene of the 1950s. This groundbreaking publication reveals a lesser-known side of Warhol and gives insight into a time of uncertainty and excitement in his development.

 

Essays by J. Hofmaier and S. Picasso
Text: English/German
248 pages, 120 colour illustrations
24 x 28, hardcover
€ 50 plus shipping

 

ISBN: 978-3-7774-5341-5
 
Purchase your copy here  

Please contact the gallery for further details.

 

Jean-Baptiste Gustave Le Gray (1820-1884) is regarded as one of the most important French photographers of the 19th century. He was born in 1820 near Paris and originally trained there as a painter before taking up photography in the late 1840s. His earliest known daguerreotypes were made in 1847.

Le Gray is well known for his technical innovations and distinctive photographs as well as for his teaching of other notable photographers. His architectural, landscape and portrait photographs were influential and he was an important contributor to the development of the wax paper negative. In the 1850s the photographer started using collodion-on-glass negatives in preference to paper negatives in order to achieve increased sharpness of the image
and faster exposure times.

His students included Charles Nègre, Henri Le Secq, Nadar, Olympe Aguado, and Maxime Du Camp. In 1851, he became one of the first five photographers hired for the Missions Héliographiques to document French monuments and buildings. Despite his success, he became bankrupt in 1860. He left his life in France for travels in Italy, before settling in Egypt where he continued to take photographs.

Selected exhibitions:

2003
“Sea and Sky: Photographs by Gustave Le Gray 1856-1857”, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

2002
“Gustave Le Gray, Photographer”, Getty Center, Los Angeles, USA

1999
“Museum as Muse: Artists Reflect”, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

1998
“Beyond the Edges: An Insider’s Look at Early Photographs”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

1987
“The Photography of Gustave Le Gray”, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA

November 15, 2012 — November 18, 2012

 

In addition to a collection of aerial photographs from the great conflicts of the mid-twentieth century, we will show recent work by artist David Bailey. Having already been surprised by the discovery of a number of 1974 Polaroids taken by Bailey of Papua New Guinea and Planet of the Apes, it was uncanny to learn that for the past year and a half he has been photographing televised footage from the Second World War. Daniel only found out when he showed Bailey the invitation for the gallery’s Paris Photo exhibition, “Airborne”. Thus for the first time we will present to the public Bailey’s most recent photographic adventure in the form of large scale photographs shot with a digital camera.

 

When Bailey takes photos of what he sees on film he increases the number of transitions between event and image to a level of abstraction that no longer has much to do with what actually took place. The image is morphed into something else, losing its historic context and becoming entirely Bailey’s.

 

November 15, 2012 — November 18, 2012

 

“Photography not only helps us to see, but it inverses our preconceptions about sight.”
Sydney Picasso

 

For Paris Photo 2012, Daniel Blau Ltd. presents “Airborne”, a collection of aerial photographs from the great conflicts of the mid-twentieth century. The exhibition focuses on the Pacific front of the Second World War, but also on other conflicts in which the use of airplanes determined and shaped the nature of warfare. A number of pictures taken on NASA missions from 1966-1971 provide a welcome juxtaposition to the raw violence of war.

 

The photographs in the “Airborne” exhibition have a dual nature: the documentary and the aesthetic. As Sydney Picasso explains, aerial photographs (of war) can be seen as historical documents but also as artistic planes where the world is flattened and transformed into an aesthetic experience. Our vision of the world has been altered by photography, and even more so by airborne photography, ever since Nadar started taking pictures from a hot air balloon in the 1850s.

 

This collection of photographs is unique in that it shows us various aspects and landscapes of war, from semi abstract landscapes, bombs falling into clouds, elegant patterns carved into the ocean’s surface by escaping ships, to “beautiful” atomic clouds rising into the sky and the pristine choreography of jets from above.

 

 

November 9, 2012 — December 1, 2012

 

“To see oursels as ithers see us!”
 Robert Burns, 1786

 

Daniel Blau Ltd. and Galerie Meyer are pleased to present ALLER-RETOUR, an exhibition of pictures from the Apollo X1 journey to the Moon. These works are arguably the ultimate reflection on the theme “The Journey”, the subject of Photo Saint-Germain-des-Prés 2012. This journey’s departure, destination and return extend beyond space and time into the realm of the unknown.

 

Space exploration has once again captivated the public with the recent landing of Mars rover “Curiosity”, which has produced unparalleled views of the “Red Planet”. Moreover, the recent passing of Neil Armstrong on August 25, 2012 is a poignant reminder of the monumentality and timeless intrigue of space in relation to mankind. Armstrong, reflecting on his journey to the Moon revealed: “the unknowns were rampant”. Set within the backdrop of the Cold War, with intense political tension between the United States and the USSR, the lunar module dubbed “The Eagle” landed Armstrong and Aldrin – with only thirty seconds of fuel remaining – on the Moon in July of 1969. An estimated 550 million people witnessed this undeniably historic event, as Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin explored the Moon’s surface for the very first time. Photographed over two hours while documenting and sampling the Moon, these original photographs remain the most expensive pictures ever taken in terms of their cost of production.

 

The “magnificent desolation”, as Aldrin described the surface of the Moon, had been photographed via telescope by Lewis Morris Rutherford in the 19th century. However, these 1969 photographs of an unprecedented clarity, the result of unfiltered sunlight in situ, epitomize the magnificence of space. The glorious nostalgia of this fortunate era is reflected in these incredible photographs.

 

50 years after the first man orbited Earth, the splendour and sublime quality of these groundbreaking pictures of the Moon continue to evoke wonder.