May 16 - June 29, 2019; Opening reception Thursday, May 16th, from 5:30-8PM
Modernism is pleased to present its first one-person exhibition of works by French artist Philippe GRONON.
In Versos, his first series working with color, Gronon has photographed the backside of paintings by modern masters, presenting each work at actual size.
Since the late 1980s, Philippe Gronon has been developing a body of work with a view camera. From shutter release to print, he has combined the specific resources of gelatin silver and digital processes in accordance with the planned result. His subjects have been those that have a function of physical or mental transition, of exchange, passage, or communication (elevator doors, X-ray plates, blackboards, lithographic stones, etc.). Working in black and white, each object was photographed frontally, filling the whole image, eliminating any context, anecdote, or picturesqueness.
The Versos, begun in 2005, therefore constitute a logical sequel to the series that preceded it. At the same time, however, they effect a kind of reversal of perspective. By choosing paintings (based on the aesthetic of the verso side), Gronon was taking an object whose value lies, precisely, in its facade. And yet, here what he shows is not the front, as with his other objects, but the back, and, because these are paintings, color is de rigeur, as is the way he surrounds the image with white, as in traditional photography. Suddenly, instead of showing us the obverse, he takes us behind the scenes. He approaches the masterpiece via the scullery, the wings, the nuts, the bolts.
Modernism is pleased to invite the public to attend an opening reception on Thursday, May 16th, from 5:30-8PM.
show less
Modernism is pleased to present its first one-person exhibition of works by French artist Philippe GRONON.
In Versos, his first series working with color, Gronon has photographed the backside of paintings by modern masters, presenting each work at actual size.
Since the late 1980s, Philippe Gronon has been developing a body of work with a view camera. From shutter release to print, he has combined the specific resources of gelatin silver and digital processes in accordance with the planned result. His subjects have been those that have a function of physical or mental transition, of exchange, passage, or communication (elevator doors, X-ray plates, blackboards, lithographic stones, etc.). Working in black and white, each object was photographed frontally, filling the whole image, eliminating any context, anecdote, or picturesqueness.
The Versos, begun in 2005, therefore constitute a logical sequel to the series that preceded it. At the same time, however, they effect a kind of reversal of perspective. By choosing paintings (based on the aesthetic of the verso side), Gronon was taking an object whose value lies, precisely, in its facade. And yet, here what he shows is not the front, as with his other objects, but the back, and, because these are paintings, color is de rigeur, as is the way he surrounds the image with white, as in traditional photography. Suddenly, instead of showing us the obverse, he takes us behind the scenes. He approaches the masterpiece via the scullery, the wings, the nuts, the bolts.
Modernism is pleased to invite the public to attend an opening reception on Thursday, May 16th, from 5:30-8PM.
May 16 - June 29, 2019; Opening reception Thursday, May 16th, from 5:30-8PM
Modernism is pleased to present its first one-person exhibition of works by French artist Philippe GRONON.
In Versos, his first series working with color, Gronon has photographed the backside of paintings by modern masters, presenting each work at actual size.
Since the late 1980s, Philippe Gronon has been developing a body of work with a view camera. From shutter release to print, he has combined the specific resources of gelatin silver and digital processes in accordance with the planned result. His subjects have been those that have a function of physical or mental transition, of exchange, passage, or communication (elevator doors, X-ray plates, blackboards, lithographic stones, etc.). Working in black and white, each object was photographed frontally, filling the whole image, eliminating any context, anecdote, or picturesqueness.
The Versos, begun in 2005, therefore constitute a logical sequel to the series that preceded it. At the same time, however, they effect a kind of reversal of perspective. By choosing paintings (based on the aesthetic of the verso side), Gronon was taking an object whose value lies, precisely, in its facade. And yet, here what he shows is not the front, as with his other objects, but the back, and, because these are paintings, color is de rigeur, as is the way he surrounds the image with white, as in traditional photography. Suddenly, instead of showing us the obverse, he takes us behind the scenes. He approaches the masterpiece via the scullery, the wings, the nuts, the bolts.
Modernism is pleased to invite the public to attend an opening reception on Thursday, May 16th, from 5:30-8PM.
read more
Modernism is pleased to present its first one-person exhibition of works by French artist Philippe GRONON.
In Versos, his first series working with color, Gronon has photographed the backside of paintings by modern masters, presenting each work at actual size.
Since the late 1980s, Philippe Gronon has been developing a body of work with a view camera. From shutter release to print, he has combined the specific resources of gelatin silver and digital processes in accordance with the planned result. His subjects have been those that have a function of physical or mental transition, of exchange, passage, or communication (elevator doors, X-ray plates, blackboards, lithographic stones, etc.). Working in black and white, each object was photographed frontally, filling the whole image, eliminating any context, anecdote, or picturesqueness.
The Versos, begun in 2005, therefore constitute a logical sequel to the series that preceded it. At the same time, however, they effect a kind of reversal of perspective. By choosing paintings (based on the aesthetic of the verso side), Gronon was taking an object whose value lies, precisely, in its facade. And yet, here what he shows is not the front, as with his other objects, but the back, and, because these are paintings, color is de rigeur, as is the way he surrounds the image with white, as in traditional photography. Suddenly, instead of showing us the obverse, he takes us behind the scenes. He approaches the masterpiece via the scullery, the wings, the nuts, the bolts.
Modernism is pleased to invite the public to attend an opening reception on Thursday, May 16th, from 5:30-8PM.
show less
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724 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94121
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