Category: FAIRS

March 14, 2014 — March 23, 2014

 

We are pleased to announce that we will present an exhibition of extraordinary Warhol drawings at TEFAF this year, including a new discovery that is bound to cause a sensation.

 

During Daniel’s research of Warhol’s drawings from the 1950s – for his book “From Silverpoint to Silver Screen” – he discovered the photographic sources for several of Warhol’s drawings. We are delighted to present a number of these drawings alongside the photographs that inspired them.

Of the works in our exhibition, one drawing is of particular relevance in the Maastricht setting. In 1951 Andries Zwart, a 9 year old from Egmond-aan-Zee, and Jan van den Heuvel, a 12 year old from Amsterdam, were chosen to grace the Dutch Kinderzegels (postage stamps which additionally support Dutch welfare institutions). LIFE Magazine reproduced these stamps alongside photographic portraits of the two boys in their January 1952 issue. Warhol used these illustrations for one of his drawings (featured in our press release below). We will be showing the original drawing at TEFAF along with the 1952 copy of LIFE Magazine.

 

Warhol’s exquisite drawings have never before been shown in this context. We look forward to welcoming you to stand 443.

 

A special exhibition at TEFAF, stand 443

Opening: March 13, 12–9 pm
Exhibition: March 14–23, 2014, 11–7 pm

 

TEFAF (The European Fine Art Fair) MECC, 6229 GV Maastricht, The Netherlands, Tel. +49 / 172 / 74 84 999

 

November 14, 2013 — November 17, 2013

 

Daniel Blau is pleased to present two exceptional collections on the occasion of Paris Photo 2013:

 

Robert Capa (1913 – 1954)

 

Robert Capa, renowned war photographer and co-founder of Magnum Photos, died a violent death while covering the first Indochina War in 1954. Had he lived, he would have turned 100 on October 22, 2013. As a centennial celebration of Capa’s life and work we present a collection of rare vintage pictures documenting WWII in Europe from 1943-45, primarily in Sicily and France.

 

Misled / Verführt German Youth 1933 – 1945

 

An exhibition of photographs of German adolescents during Hitler’s regime. This collection of images depicts a misled generation – children raised as soldiers, eager to become heroes but ultimately used as cannon fodder. This group of dramatic photographs has been carefully assembled over five years and is available as a set.

 

Paris Photo 2013
Grand Palais
Avenue Winston Churchill
75008 Paris
France

 

Stand B20
November 14 – 16
12:30 pm – 8:00 pm
November 17
12:30 – 7:00 pm

October 17, 2013 — October 20, 2013

 

We are very pleased to present an extraordinary exhibition of twentieth century drawings from 1913-1983 at Frieze Masters. The human form has served as inspiration for artistic work since the earliest drawings, and our show is dedicated in particular to the curves and shapes of women.

 

A special highlight is the release of 40 early drawings by renowned German artist George Grosz (1893-1959). These drawings were made at the beginning of the artist’s career in 1913 and rediscovered in his estate 100 years later. Most of them have not been previously exhibited. His sparse drawing style is minimalistic and expressive – not a single line is wasted. Grosz’s figures appear to be transparent and yet are full of character and movement. These exceptional works are being shown alongside drawings by Andy Warhol, whose controversial “Nosepicker” Grosz famously defended while Warhol was a student in Pittsburgh. The artists’ early works display a similar use of line which can be fully appreciated when viewed together.

 

Other highlights of our show include a number of A. R. Penck’s 1960s stylised pencil drawings on paper, which have never before been seen by the public, alongside a selection of remarkable drawings from the 1970s by Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer, among others.

 

Special Highlight: Captain Beefheart – Paintings by Van Vliet
Text by Hans Kern
 
As part of our Frieze Masters 2013 exhibition, Daniel Blau Gallery will be showing four paintings from 1986 by Don Van Vliet. Best known by his stage name “Captain Beefheart”, Van Vliet garnered widespread fame and recognition throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s with his “Magic Band.” Stylistically and technically way ahead of its time, the music of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band always exploded categorisation, whether as “psychedelic rock”,  “avantgarde pop” or “free jazz.” Beefheart’s powerful voice, with which he would bellow out the tunes, earned him an early reputation among contemporaries of the Mississippi Delta tradition, like Lightnin’ Hopkins and Taj Mahal, as one of the few white singers who could do justice to the blues.

 

Despite several reincarnations of his band, the vivid and colourful genius of Don Van Vliet himself perennially shone through all their performances as well as their recordings – most notably Safe as Milk, Trout Mask Replica, and Shiny Beast. Much to the frustration of his producers, Van Vliet insisted on making “2-dimensional” albums, untouched by techniques that might add perspective or depth, and would often convey new musical ideas to his bandmates figuratively. This, as well as the very illustrative nature of his lyrics, attests to the visually oriented artistic process of the man, even as a musician.

 

Shortly after the 1982 release of the critically acclaimed “Ice Cream for Crow” and arguably at the peak of his success, Van Vliet surprised both band and public by laying down the Captain Beefheart mantle. Music, he said, had only been an “irritant” which he had used to shake the world out of its catatonic state. Now Van Vliet wanted to channel his creative muse through his lifelong passion for drawing and painting, thus taking his vibrant animal imagery and mystical manifestations to the canvas. The resulting paintings Carp Catcher, Candle Powered Rodeo Ghosts, Garden Lion and Archaic Faces Frenzy, are glyph-like representations of hominids, beasts and spirits engaged in a primal dance that hearkens to a more raw and exuberant vision of nature underlying the man-made world one readily perceives; a vision that Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart conjures masterfully.

 

Booth B12
Preview: October 15 & 16, 2013
Exhibition: October 17 -20, 12 – 7 pm

June 13, 2013 — June 16, 2013

 

We are delighted to announce that we will be returning to Art Basel this year for the twentieth time with a one-man exhibition of early drawings by Andy Warhol (1928-1987). Following the overwhelming success of our recent international museum exhibitions in Denmark and the Netherlands, we are pleased to present an exquisite selection of drawings, most of which have not been exhibited before.

 

Many of these newly discovered drawings are studies of the human form, inspired by photographs or magazine illustrations. They provide us with unparalleled insight into the early career of one of the 20th century’s most important artists, revealing a lesser-known Warhol founded in European art history and reminiscent of early 20th century masters such as Schiele, Dix, Grosz, Klee and Klimt.

 

We are proud to introduce these exceptional drawings to the public for the first time in this one-man show.

 

 

April 25, 2013 — April 28, 2013

 

For the inaugural Paris Photo LA we are proud to present “History in the Taking”, an exhibition of iconic Pulitzer Prize winning and News Pictures photographs. This show, the first commercial Pulitzer exhibition of this calibre, has been assembled with much time and effort from collections, archives and dealers. The majority of prints in the show are vintage – many even wire-transmitted before they became prize-winners. Some of the prints have additional historical significance due to the ink stamps and news clippings on the back or editorial marks on the front.

 

The show includes fantastic large prints of prominent works such as Malcolm Browne’s “Burning Monk”, Robert Jackson’s infamous image of the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald and Eddie Adams’ harrowing “Execution in Saigon”.

 

The exhibition will also include the discovery of the photographic image Andy Warhol used as inspiration for an important 1950s drawing. We will show here for the first time the original drawing alongside the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph “Teen-Age Shooter” by Frank Cushing.

 

Paris Photo LA 2013
Paramount Pictures Studios
5555 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
United States

 

Opening: 25 April
Exhibition: 26 and 27 April: 12 – 7pm
28 April: 12 – 6pm

April 4, 2013 — April 7, 2013

 

For AIPAD 2013 we present an exhibition of rare vintage prints portraying famous events and news stories. Some of the large-format pieces are precious art prints, others are wire-transmitted, all are extraordinary photographs of artistic, historic and cultural significance.

 

The exhibition is focused on stop-the-press pictures that have not only documented but helped to define history, including Pulitzer Prize and Picture of the Year photographs ranging from the 1930s to the 1970s.

 

The highlight of this first-of-its-kind exhibition is a series of large-format vintage prints from 1937 illustrating the tragic destruction of the Hindenburg. This event marks the first time a news picture made it nationwide into the next morning’s paper and represents an immense development in the use and significance of photo-reportage.

 

Booth 400
The AIPAD Photography Show
Park Avenue Armory
67th St. and Park Avenue
New York City

 

Opening:
April 3, 5 – 9 pm

 

Exhibition:
April 4-6, 11 – 7 pm
April 7, 11 – 6 pm

March 15, 2012 — March 24, 2013

 

Daniel Blau is pleased to present two special exhibitions at TEFAF 2013. Following the very successful show at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark earlier this year, we are happy to announce a new exhibition of original drawings by Andy Warhol, many of which are now presented to the public for the first time. All of these drawings were discovered last year in Warhol’s estate. Some of them are illustrated in our comprehensive publication that finally sheds light on this neglected period in the artist’s work.

 

“Araki, Bailey, Close – Polaroids” will accompany our Warhol show with an exhibition of unique polaroids by three renowned contemporary artists. This innovative show ranges from a series of Planet of the Apes pictures taken in 1974 by David Bailey, to an exceptional large-format polaroid self-portrait by Chuck Close from 1979 to more recent works by Nobuyoshi Araki.

 

Now that Polaroid material is out of production, the inherent quality and intriguing colour scheme of the medium has become increasingly apparent. We are proud to be able to present such a high calibre selection of unique photographs by these pioneers and masters of Polaroid technology.

 

Stand 443
TEFAF (The European Fine Art Fair)
MECC
6229 GV Maastricht
The Netherlands

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.