FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
JOHN COPLANS
EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS
MAY 8 – JUNE 26, 2004
Skarstedt Fine Art is pleased to present an exhibition of early photographs by John Coplans.
Coplans began making his poignant and intimate self-portraits in 1984, when he was 64 years old, until his death in 2003. As a critic, curator, museum director and founder of Artforum, prior to his career as an artist, he was one of the first proponents of Pop Art and championed the artwork of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. The "seriality" seen in postmodern culture, literature and art is an integral element in Coplans’ artwork.
Coplans combines the genres of self-portraiture, abstraction and performance art. With this approach he achieves a nonlinguistic image that uses photography's expressive potential to demonstrate a world without remembrance or recognition. Coplans is interested in removing the idea of 'paying attention' from the activity of 'seeing.' His face is never included in the self-portrait, replacing the easiest way to convey emotion and familiarity with ambiguous forms. Coplans' objective is to increase the clarity of a person's capacity for visual description.
Coplans has had one-person exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago (1981,1989), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1988), the Museum of Modern Art, NY (1988), Musee de la Veille Charite, Marseilles (1989), the Frankfurter Kunstverein (1990), Museum Boymans-van Beuningan, Rotterdam (1990), the Fundacio Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (1990), the Centre George Pompidou, Paris (1994), Ludwig Forum, Aachen (1995), P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, NY (1997), Paco das Artes, Sao Paolo (1998).
For further information, please contact +1 212 737 2060 or info@skarstedt.com
JOHN COPLANS
EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS
MAY 8 – JUNE 26, 2004
Skarstedt Fine Art is pleased to present an exhibition of early photographs by John Coplans.
Coplans began making his poignant and intimate self-portraits in 1984, when he was 64 years old, until his death in 2003. As a critic, curator, museum director and founder of Artforum, prior to his career as an artist, he was one of the first proponents of Pop Art and championed the artwork of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. The "seriality" seen in postmodern culture, literature and art is an integral element in Coplans’ artwork.
Coplans combines the genres of self-portraiture, abstraction and performance art. With this approach he achieves a nonlinguistic image that uses photography's expressive potential to demonstrate a world without remembrance or recognition. Coplans is interested in removing the idea of 'paying attention' from the activity of 'seeing.' His face is never included in the self-portrait, replacing the easiest way to convey emotion and familiarity with ambiguous forms. Coplans' objective is to increase the clarity of a person's capacity for visual description.
Coplans has had one-person exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago (1981,1989), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1988), the Museum of Modern Art, NY (1988), Musee de la Veille Charite, Marseilles (1989), the Frankfurter Kunstverein (1990), Museum Boymans-van Beuningan, Rotterdam (1990), the Fundacio Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (1990), the Centre George Pompidou, Paris (1994), Ludwig Forum, Aachen (1995), P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, NY (1997), Paco das Artes, Sao Paolo (1998).
For further information, please contact +1 212 737 2060 or info@skarstedt.com