Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (08), 2009. © Gregory Crewdson. All images of courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.
Sanctuary, the Gregory Crewdson exhibition currently on view at Gagosian Gallery’s Madison Avenue branch, further develops the artist’s on-going investigation into the realm of staged photography. With this new body of work, Crewdson addresses questions of format and color, presenting a series of black and white images that offer an intimate entry point into his visual journey through Italy.
Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (06), 2009. © Gregory Crewdson.
More text and images after the jump…
Gregory Crewdson, Sanctuary, Installation View, 2010.
Fascinated by the ruins of Cinecittà, the legendary set of Fellini’s epic films, the artist maps out the ghostly landscape of this oft-dismissed area of Rome. The architectonic structures which have survived among the outdoor space of the studios form the main subject matter of this series of carefully balanced compositions; reminiscences of human intercessions, such as curtains and scaffolding, are framed by arches and mysterious gates. Contrasting the memory of a lively past with the vacancy of the present, the artist captures the site’s unique archeological identity.
Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (17), 2009. © Gregory Crewdson.
Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (29), 2009. © Gregory Crewdson.
While challenging ideas of immobility and absence, these photographs also embody the delicate moment of transition between the still and the moving image. It is within the ruins of these cinematic settings that photography and cinema are revealed as deeply interconnected, intertwined presences. Crewdson’s ability to capture a specific instant and fix it in time and space invites the viewer to unfold the multiple narratives that lay behind and around ‘the scene’.
Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (23), 2009. © Gregory Crewdson.
Gregory Crewdson, Sanctuary, Installation View, 2010.
Gregory Crewdson, Sanctuary, Installation View, 2010.
Gregory Crewdson, Sanctuary, Installation View, 2010.
Gregory Crewdson was born in 1962 in Brooklyn, New York, and received a BA at SUNY Purchase, followed by an MFA at Yale University. His photographs are included in numerous museums and public collections around the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Crewdson is a faculty member of the Department of Photography at Yale University and lives in New York City.
Gregory Crewdson, Sanctuary, Installation View, 2010.
– G. Tedone
Related links:
The Epic Photographer Shoots Rome’s Fabled Film Studio Cinecittà [Nowness]
Sanctuary, exhibition catalogue [Abramsbooks]
Gregory Crewdson’s Latest Photographic Series “Sanctuary” at Gagosian Gallery [Artdaily]
