The Photograph as Canvas

March 11, 2007—June 10, 2007
Exhibition Reception: Sunday, March 11, 2007; 3 to 5 pm

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of artists making images on the surface of photographs, revisiting a phenomenon that started in the 1960s with artists such as Gerhard Richter and Ellsworth Kelly. Brooklyn-based writer, artist, and curator Stephen Maine has organized an exhibition entitled The Photograph as Canvas to further examine the various ways that emerging contemporary artists are exploring this process, especially for The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. The exhibition will be on view from March 11 through June 10, 2007.

The exhibition reception will be held at The Aldrich, located at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT, on Sunday, March 11, 2007, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. Round-trip transportation from New York City is available; please call the Museum at 203.438.4519 for reservations.

additional images | click to enlarge



John Beech, Coated Drawing / Dark Turquoise, 2006
Enamel on b/w photograph, mounted on aluminum panel
21.75 x 13.75 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Peter Blum Gallery



Kim Jones, Untitled, 1994-2004
Acrylic and ink on photograph, 28.5x39
Courtesy of Cliff Diver



Rob Fisher, Unity Road No. 1, 2004-05
Acrylic paint on C-type print mounted on plexi
42 x 42 inches
Courtesy of Cohan and Leslie



Judith Page, Robin (8-27-06), 2006
Tar gel, acrylic, photograph on canvas
12 x 16 inches
Courtesy of the Artist



Saul Leiter, The Young Musician, #1, 1987
Gouche and watercolor over gelatin silver photograph
10 X 8 inches
Signed in ink on print recto
Courtesy of the artist



Sebastiaan Bremer, Dead Cock and Contemplative Magpie, 2006
Ink on c-print
260 x 300 cm
Courtesy Roebling Hall, New York



Jim Dingilian, Veil, 2005
Selectively bleached found photograph
10 x 8 inches
Courtesy of McKenzie Fine Art, New York



Eugenie Tung, 829b High Street, Bellingham, fire escape area, 2004
6 x 4 inches
Courtesy of the artist



James Hyde, WE MOVE IT AROUND, 2005
20.5 x 27 inches
Courtesy of the artist

The Photograph as Canvas offers an in-depth visual exploration of the increasingly popular movement among contemporary artists to draw and paint on photographic prints. Maine recognizes that “digital technology is partly responsible for this attitudinal shift,” but attributes the movement primarily to “a brainy strain of fine artists looking to fuel their voracious appetite for new pictorial means.” He has chosen an international collection of contemporary works by John Beech, Kim Jones, Rob Fischer, Judith Page, Saul Leiter, Sebastiaan Bremer, the Zurich-based team Andres Lutz and Anders Guggisberg, Jim Dingilian, Eugenie Tung, and James Hyde to illustrate the phenomenon.

Download a printable copy of The Photograph as Canvas brochure [PDF]

Top of page: Lutz/Guggisberg, Goat, 2005. Mixed media on paper. 5 x 9 inches