Sept. 27, 2012 -
PRLog -- Eckert Fine Art is delighted to announce AWARDED, a solo exhibition of photography by the designer and artist Barry Kieselstein-
Cord. The retrospective exhibition will open with a reception on Saturday, October 20, from 3 to 7 p.m., at Eckert Fine Art Gallery in Millerton, New York, and continue through Saturday, November 3,, 2012.
The exhibition, which will feature photography spanning from the beginning of Kieselstein-
Cord’s staggering forty-year career through provocative new works, will be the first chance to see this artist’s photography since his successful show at Manhattan’s prestigious Bonni Benrubi Gallery in 1999. It adds a significant new dimension to what we know of the creative career of Kieselstein-
Cord, who is world renowned as a designer of luxurious jewelry and lifestyle accessories, with work that has earned him the industry’s highest honors, including COTY and CFDA Awards and placement in the collections of the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kieselstein-
Cord’s work is also in the collections of such luminaries as President Barack Obama, George Soros, Sean Penn, Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z, Steven Spielberg, Bob Pittman, Vladimir Putin, and Henry Kravis. It has been published in more than twenty books and over one hundred international magazines.
The exhibition is accompanied by the book AWARDED, a special publication on Barry Kieselstein-
Cord’s photography with an introduction by Nancy Hall-Duncan. The book brings together more than one hundred images, most published here for the first time. Hall-Duncan is the author of numerous books and articles on art and photography, including
Fakes and Forgeries: The Art of Deception,
Innovations in the Third Dimension: Sculpture of Our Time, and
The History of Fashion Photography.
The book surveys Kieselstein-
Cord’s entire career, beginning with his early years in the advertising world of the late 1960s, when as a young art director and producer he worked with masters such as Horst P. Horst, Bert Stern, Richard Avedon, and Irving Penn. At this time, and into the 1970s, Kieselstein-
Cord was part of the legendary New York art scene that included Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe and gave birth to artists such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
It is a tribute to Kieselstein-
Cord’s talent that Mapplethorpe consulted him about photographic technique and admired his pictures. Kieselstein-
Cord also interacted both personally and professionally with Andy Warhol. Indeed, Kieselstein-
Cord’s art and images published in Warhol’s
Interview magazine were part of the wave that tore down the old order and laid the foundation for today’s avant-garde of sprawling installations and digital art.
Several of Kieselstein-
Cord’s images relate to this period’s darker side. “If you recall the graffiti on subway walls and the crack addicts in New York City,” the artist recalled, “my photograph of the syringe and skull, which has an antidrug message, is a direct reflection of that time. The photo of a gun on a night table also came out of that era. This is honest, strong art of the period.”
The continuity of Kieselstein-
Cord’s imagery and the range of his subject matter over a forty-year career are extraordinary, proving him a deeply accomplished photographer. His photos, in both black- and-white and color, are haunting in their graphic beauty. The exhibition encompasses breathtaking compositions and portraits, images with stillness worthy of an Eakins painting, and landscapes that recall Josef Sudek’s. Yet Kieselstein-
Cord’s photographs are entirely original and beyond category.
Barry Kieselstein-
Cord’s recent work records his views on life, the people he meets, and his experiences. It’s often politically provocative, expressing frustration with unsettling global conditions, insinuating Orwellian undertones, and satirizing the artifice and overindulgence of our time. These are strong statements, made with a puckish sense of humor. But for all their directness, they’re multidimensional in their meanings. Kieselstein-
Cord’s photography generously gives the viewer many layers to interpret.
AWARDED
Photographs by Barry Kieselstein-
Cord
Eckert Fine Art
34 Main Street, Millerton, NY 12546
October 20th through November 3rd, 2012
www.eckertfineart.com
All material © Kieselstein-
Cord/Dragonhead LLC
Exhibition arranged by Eckert Fine Art and Dragon Head LLC.
For further information on the exhibition, transportation, or press inquires please contact: Gabe Napoleon, Tel.: 860-944-5009, Email:office@
kieselstein-
cord.com
