Saturday, May 29, 2010

R. G. Hoegler's Griechenland


I was looking through a book of photographs recently called Griechenland by R. G. Hoegler. Except for the fact that his first name was/is Rudolf, I couldn't find out much about the him. He was a German painter who fell in love with rural Greece and spent many years there before the start of World War II. After the war had interrupted his idyll, he returned to Greece to find that painting no longer spoke "the language of his heart." He took up photography and produced more than one book about Greece.

The book itself is elegant. The copy I have is pretty beat up but it is large, bound in nice cloth with gilt embossed lettering, with all tipped-in images. Quite handsome.

The work is mostly images of the Greek landscape, archeological ruins, sculpture, artwork, towns. All professionally produced and beautiful examples of their genre but for the most part, the book reads like art history (visually reads; the text is all in German which I can't read.)

What sets this book off is that there are more than a handful of images which are unusual and striking. And a couple that are in fact puzzling in the context of the overall theme of the book. Here are some samples:






I really don't know what to make of this image, the last in the book. It's a very odd way of ending this sort of coffee table travel book.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Aaron Siskind


Robert Mann Gallery, NYC

2003

Stiff, card stock, 10 x 6 7/8 inches, folded once to produce a 5 x 6 7/8 notecard






Robert Mann Gallery, NYC
2000

Stiff, card stock, 5 5/8 x 6 inches, printed one side only



The New Yorker
March 13, 2000





Glenn Horowitz Booksellers
East Hampton, NY
May 31 - June 24, 1997

Booklet: 6.25 x 8.75 inches, 24 pages, saddle-stitched with stiff blank wraps with dust jacket




This exhibition booklet features a twelve page essay by Peter Bunnell,
one reproduction (aside from the one on the title page)
and an exhibition checklist of 41 pieces.




Phoenix Gallery, San Francisco
1976

Stiff card stock, 5.5 x 8.5 inches



Monday, May 10, 2010

Toshio Shibata

How about some ephemera from the career of Toshio Shibata? Unfortunately, nothing from Japan, but here are some items from around the U.S.


Laurence Miller Gallery, NYC
1996

Stiff card stock, 9 x 3.75 inches, printed one side only



Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
1997

17 x 11 inches folded once to form a 8.5 x 11 inch brochure






Laurence Miller Gallery, NYC
1998

Stiff card stock, 9 x 3.75 inches, printed one side only




Laurence Miller Gallery, NYC
1999

Stiff card stock, 9 x 3.75 inches, printed one side only




Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA
2002

Stiff card stock, 8.5 x 5.75 inches





Laurence Miller Gallery, NYC
2003

Stiff card stock, 9 x 3.75 inches, printed one side only