Chico and Rita

This past weekend, inspired by a great review in The New York Times, I went to see the animated movie "Chico and Rita". A full length feature set against the Cuban music scene of the late 1940s and 50s, the film is a love story not only of its two protagonists but also to Havana, Cuban jazz, and creative film-making.

Directed by Fernando Trueba, the filmmaker responsible for the cult Cuban jazz documentary “Calle 54”, and designed by Javier Mariscal, a Spanish graphic artist and designer, the film is so true to life that at first you wonder why it wasn’t simply made as live action. An early car chase scene is so realistically done you actually find yourself flinching, but the quirky hand-drawn animation quickly wins you over.

The music, combining Cuban jazz standards with new compositions by the great pianist and composer, Bebo Valdes, sticks with you long after the film is over – as does the sultry sexiness of the animated Rita – who gives Jessica Rabbit a run for her money (while displaying the full frontal nudity which is really the only reason the movie would not be child-appropriate).

While the film moves as far afield as New York and Las Vegas, the other star is the exquisitely rendered and vibrantly colored Havana. The filmmakers spent several months shooting on location in Havana, and their attention to detail produces a feeling that is both realistic and seductive. I can’t wait to visit Cuba.

While foremost a love story, the film doesn’t sugar-coat the place and time. Chico and Rita, both black Cubans, have to deal with discrimination and exploitation as they work their way up the commercial ladder and without giving anything anyway, their story is bittersweet.

Most surprising of all, though, “Chico & Rita,” has been nominated for an Academy Award as best animated feature – usually the sole province of family oriented fare. In a film year generally acknowledged as one of the most lackluster, it will be interesting to see if “The Artist” and “Chico and Rita” show that breaking out of the box sometimes gets you to the Oscar stage.

Keeping Up With The Web ...

An interesting piece in today's New York Times (click here) about the most watched video on YouTube. Over 417.6 million views! Hard to fathom when you see what it is.

Meanwhile, as those who know me can attest, I'm not much of Facebook user (this blog being my outlet). But I find the pictures people post interesting and have recently been struck by how many people are now using Facebook as on online gallery to showcase photographs by other people that have resonance for them. Quite often you find accidental themes emerging from random posts - most recently I noticed this underwater theme. A wish for warmer times? A feeling people are drowning? Or a more optimistic feeling of floating? You be the judge of this pictorial zeitgeist.

Top photo by Phiippe Paoli; second photo by Seth Casteel, and bottom, this classic fashion photograph for VOGUE in 1948 by the late Toni Frissel.

Back in the Saddle Again!

I have been quite rightly called out for not keeping this blog up to date. But I’ll explain. Two things. One – it takes a lot of time and the gallery has been very busy. Two – if something really interesting or fresh comes around, I’ll let you know. This month there have already been a couple good things passed on to me which I’ll now share with you.

First (courtesy of my brother) – a series of colorized photographs by Swedish artist Sanna Dullaway. While Dullaway’s main business is restoring old family photographs, she has taken to re-imagining iconic images with enough skill and verisimilitude that the issue it addresses is not colorization (of course it’s weird and disrespectful, but occasionally effective) but about the power of black and white photography. In a world of color, it’s amazing what effect black and white has. (Perhaps this why the film “The Artist” has taken such a hold on people.) Dullaway’s motive is simple. She writes on her Flickr site: "Hi. I take coloured photographs. If I stumble upon colourless photographs I colour them." If only everyone were so honest!

BOOTSY HOLLER

Second, my friend and bike coach Angela Sherry introduced me to the work of Bootsy Holler. A Los Angeles based editorial and fine art photographer, Bootsy has created her own personal time machine by inserting herself in her old family photos, but not before painstakingly costuming and making herself up in period appropriate get up.

Her series, Visitor, takes the Zelig-ian fantasy but transports it to a personal and emotional place where we can visit those we loved, or never knew.

In my gallery, people are constantly questioning the use of photoshop, which is something I don’t really pay much attention to. There aren’t many photographers these days not using that or some other kind of digital intervention in one way or another. It's just another tool and when it works it’s great and when it doesn’t it sucks.

That's Bootsy on the left.

That's Bootsy behind the screen door.

For more Bootsy click here.

Don't Miss This Show - Nan Goldin at Matthew Marks

The one exhibition not to miss before Christmas is Nan Goldin's show at the Matthew Marks Gallery. Juxtaposing images from decades of her own work with her recent shots of artworks in the Louvre, the show is divided into two parts – one a display of prints, and then in the darkened almost cinema-sized screening room, one of Goldin’s trademark slide shows.

For much of 2010, The Louvre allowed Goldin access to its collections on Tuesdays, when the museum is closed to the public. Goldin wandered through the galleries, focusing on the paintings that most spoke to her, revisiting certain pieces again and again, to the point where she started to see them as human rather than historic objets d'art. The connection that developed became "one of the most sensuous experiences" of Goldin's life – which is saying something because Goldin is primarily a sensualist (secondly a colorist, and thirdly a natural born photographer).

My favorite part of the experience was the slide show where in picture after picture one can only marvel at Goldin’s ability to turn everyday moments into vibrant works of art.

DO NOT MISS!

Paris Photo

The Grand Palais seen from the Pont Alexandre II.

Simply put - Paris Photo was amazing!

This year the long running French art fair moved from the basement of The Louvre to the Grand Palais and the event was transformative. 150 dealers from all over the world gathered in the turn of the century building whose original purpose was in fact to house the great artistic events of Paris. The main space - the length of two and a half football fields, was constructed with an iron, steel and glass barrel-vaulted roof (needed for large gatherings of people before the age of electricity).

The light, the scale, the space, and an incredible run of good weather seemed to put everyone in the best possible mood and from both my own personal experience and what I gather from colleagues, business was booming as collectors and curators from Brussels to Beijing made the rounds.

The fair also signaled Paris' increasing dominance in the world of photography. Once New York was where it all happened, and not to be self-promoting here - but other than New York's photography dealers (who still dominate the medium) - the interest, commitment, visibility, enthusiasm, discovery, and love for photography all seem greater in Paris. Correct me if you think I'm wrong.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the event and a few highlights. As a participant rather than an observer, I was busy all the time so there are fewer snaps than I would have liked. Sorry.

The sign says"Your waiting time is about an hour from this point" and people were lined up well past here!

The interior of the Grand Palais.

My booth.

My fantastic assistant Charlotte, and our helper Pascal.

Every year the fair celebrates the photography of one culture and this year it was Africa. Here the late Depara from Kinshasa, Congo - another revelatory discovery in the field of African photography.

James Barnor - who took fashion photographs in London for the African magazine, Drum.

Shomei Tomatsu from “Acqua” an exploration of the theme of water in photographs sponsored by Giorgio Armani - one of several non-selling booths at the fair.

An Andy Warhol "stitched" photograph. Warhol's inventiveness never ceases to amaze.

An extraordinarily vivid new super-sized Massimo Vitale at Brancolini Grimaldi.

The "Acqua" booth from outside.

And inside an interesting dialog between Garry Fabian Miller's seminal 1976 horizon pictures and Hiroshi Sugimoto's 1980s prints (recently printed large).

And to end - a beautiful Paolo Roversi of Natalia Vodianova.

See you next year?

Seen in London

In London on my way to exhibiting at Paris Photo.

I was a little surprised to walk into the underground and see this poster for a painting show at The National Portrait Gallery. It certainly caught my eye, but I wonder what the conservatively inclined would make of it back home. It always perplexes me when the land of liberty is more conservative than the land of the monarchy. And will this be another "offensive and explicit" post that will keep Facebook from allowing people to link to this blog?

Karen Knorr's India Song

THE JOY OF AHIMSA. TAKHAT VILAS. MEHRANGARH FORT. JODHPUR

You’re all invited. Next up at Danziger Gallery is the opening of the Karen Knorr show “India Song” – this Thursday, 6 to 8 p.m..

Knorr, who is a well known artist in England, has been working on different series since the mid 1970s – initially chronicling London’s punk scene, then moving into a combination of social observation and commentary of England’s upper class, and then being increasingly drawn to creating her own tableaux in the interior spaces of historic homes and museums. Knorr’s artistic and conceptual journey is an exemplary model of how one body of work leads to another to build a career. And to cap it off (not that the end is anywhere near) Knorr was just nominated for the 2012 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize - Europe's most prestigious award "for a living photographer who has made the most significant contribution to the medium of photography over the past year".

Much of this acclaim has centered on Knorr’s latest work – a series of Indian tableaux transposing wild animals into the opulent interiors of some of Northern India’s most beautiful private homes and palaces.

Like the pioneering early photographers who found in India a wealth of exotic subject matter, Knorr celebrates the visual richness found in the myths and stories of northern India using sacred and secular sites to highlight caste, femininity and its relationship with the animal world. She considers men's space (mardana) and women's space (zanana) in Mughal and Rajput architecture - be they in palaces, mansions, or mausoleums. These interiors are meticulously photographed with a large format analogue camera. Knorr's own photographs of live animals are then inserted into the diverse rooms and sites, fusing high resolution digital with analogue photography. The results create original and stunning images that reinvent the Panchatantra (an ancient Indian collection of animal fables) for the 21st century and further blur the boundaries between reality and illusion.

Sometimes a show we do takes on a resonance beyond the norm and Knorr’s photographs have certainly provoked this response. We’ve had inquiries (and purchases) from museums and collectors from the minute we posted the work. Come and see for yourselves.

THE QUEEN'S ROOM, ZANANA, UDAIPUR CITY PALACE.

FLIGHT TO FREEDOM, DURBAR HALL, DUNGARPUR.

THE PRIVATE AUDIENCE, AAM KHAS, JUNHA MAHAL, DUNGARPUR.

THE GATEKEEPER, ZANANA, SAMODE PALACE.