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The
Exhibition 'Beloved Light' |
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'Beloved Light'
Monday 20th July – Saturday 15th August 2009
‘Beloved Light’, a mixed show of art photography led by the work of internationally renowned and highly decorated photographer Mario Carrieri. He grew up in the great artistic circles and family friends included Modigliani, Picasso and Marini. The main body of the exhibition is devoted to eight retrospective groups of his work. These bodies of work include, ‘Milan’, images from his book from 1957-1959), Architectural studies for such clients as Norman Foster and Renzo Piano; Design studies for such clients as Fiorucci; Studies of Pre-Columbian and African Tribal Sculpture from the 1970’s, as well as Female Nude studies from the 1980s. His studies of foundry plasters of Auguste Rodin from the late 1990’s have been paired together with a collection of posthumous production bronzes. His most recent work is represented by ‘Fiore’ and ‘Natura Morta’, both groups illustrating the pathos and tragic nature of the human condition. Carrieri has worked with many of the top fashion designers, has published many books internationally, has works in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and is widely collected by both private and public collections. Clients have included Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Fiorucci, Valentino, Knoll, Cassina, Giovanni Agnelli, Henry Moore, and His Majesty the King of Spain. The work of two other photographers will also be shown with Mario Carrieri’s work; Icelandic artist Iris Thorsteinsdottir, and Estonian photographer Silja Truus, both based in London. Iris Thorsteinsdottir’s collection is entitled ‘Places of Memory’, which each image was shot either through a window, or a sheet of glass that was carried in one arm, with the camera held in the other. The objective is to provide, simultaneously, both a sense of shelter provided by the architectural interiors, and exposure to the adjacent exterior environment, as can be seen in the ‘Fort Baker Series’. Here, the essence of both inside and outside, shelter and exposure, man-made and natural, co-exist. These extremes of subject are profoundly influenced her native Iceland, the Land of Fire and Ice. Silja Truus, an accomplished ceramicist and photographer depicts light as a symbol of spirituality and the substance beyond all matter as can be seen in her series, ‘All is Light’. Her studies of skyscrapers reflecting their surroundings, and stark offices blocks ablaze with life-bringing light, are set against studies of ancient trees that stand starkly against the sky. She further illustrates the spiritual nature of light with her explosive study of neon light, and her nude studies as viewed through water; as can be seen in Light I, II, III, IV and Memories.
Hay Hill Gallery is delighted to introduce
the work of these photographers to their clients in their series of
photographic shows this summer, celebrating the ‘Art of the
Photographer’. For press enquiries, further information and images:
Notes to Editors: Hay Hill Gallery founded in 1995, has recently relocated to Cork Street. The Hay Hill Gallery was founded as a joint venture between the Russian company Art Service Centre Ltd with over nine years experience of the international art scene, and the British company Sirin Ltd. The Hay Hill Gallery continues to introduce modern artists whose work pays homage to academic traditions; and mount exhibitions focussing on sculpture and international art. Mario Carrieri: born in Milan - November 1932. His father Raffaele was an author of numerous collections of poetry and numerous writings on art, led a very active life that saw him, when only 15 years old, fighting by the side of D'Annunzio in the adventure of Hume and later creating a wide network of friendship and professional relationships with some of the leading cultural figures of the period, including Modigliani, Picasso, Marini, Campigli, the founders of Futurism, and Vittorio Bodini. In the early 1950s, after abandoning his academic career, the young Mario Carrieri was taken on by the publishing house, Mondadori to catalogue the photo archive of the weekly magazine Epoca, recently launched. Carrieri spent the central years of the decade making a number of commercials, some on Carosello (Italian public television's advertising slot). He won important recognition (the Diploma of the Gran Prix and the A.P.C. Cup) at the Milan Trade Fair's Film Advertising Festival in 1956. In 1957 he gave up all his work and concentrated on a wide-ranging photographic record of Milan. Between January and August of 1958 he used a small-format camera to take 3,500 shots of the city within the circle of the old customs houses: 134 were published in 1959 to form the sequence, divided into ten "scenes", of the book Milano, Italia, published by C.M.Lerici. The only voice raised firmly in its defence was that of another photographer, Ugo Mulas, despite the critics’ indifference to the project. His support was the start of a close friendship between them. The Museum of Modern Art in New York and other European museums acquired for their collection many of the photos that had appeared in the volume. From 1962, Mario Carrieri spent two years collecting materials for I Cinque Dolori, a short film freely inspired by the poetry of Eugenio Montale. At the same time, prompted by Roberto Sanesi, he planned a documentary, on the life and work of Dylan Thomas, to be filmed in Wales, the poet's birthplace, which was never made. Amlicare Pizzi, a printing firm that worked largely for international art publishers, commissioned Carrieri to travel worldwide taking photos for a series funded by UNESCO on the artistic legacy of humanity for 15 years. It gave specific emphasis to ancient sculpture, from the Etruscans to the Greeks, Romans and Ancient Egyptians, for which he received a further order from the Menil Foundation in Houston. In the early 1970s Carrieri took over the studio in Via Spallanzani vacated by Ugo Mulas, then seriously ill, and began a close collaboration that has lasted down to the present with leading designers both in Italy and abroad. Over the period, 1972-1974, he spent his weekends working in Venice. Despite taking over 17,000 colour slides he failed to produce the book he had originally imagined, disappointed by the difference between the final corpus of photographs and his expectations. Between 1975 and 1977 he produced a long series of images of African sculpture in both colour and black and white. They were exhibited in early 1981 at the Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea in Milan and published in the catalogue of the show (Mazzotta), with an introduction by Emilio Tadini, as well as in a special Italian edition of Karen Blixen's Out of Africa commissioned by Olivetti the same year. In 1978 he began working on the theme of still life, completing a rich collection of works that have never been shown until his recent retrospective in his Milan studio and home. From 1980 Mario Carrieri has worked for some leading design companies such as Knoll, Steelcase, Cassina, Techo, Unifor, to name a few. He has also worked with key architects, including Richard Meyer, Renzo Piano, Michele De Lucchi, Jean Nanvel, Norman Foster, Aldo Rossi. In the late 1990s Carrieri devoted himself to the photographic interpretation of the sculpture of Auguste Rodin. His images formed an independent section of a travelling exhibition of the originals previewed in August 1999 in the Church of San Stae in Venice, and the accompanying book Rodin: Plasters and Bronzes. In the biographies that have appeared so far the writer has had this to say of himself "Though he has an awful character and tends towards isolation, sometimes he has been obliged to do some personal and collective exhibitions. Belonging to the lonely category of the visionary, he does not love the fleeting moment of photography. Perhaps it is for this reason that he does not go about a camera slung round his neck but prefers to support ordeal of travelling the world lugging with him all 906 kilos of his equipment." Comments Francesco Zanot Iris Thorsteinsdottir: born 1972, Reykjavik, Iceland. Iris Thorsteinsdottir is an Icelandic artist living and working in London. She has recently arrived in London, after 10 years in California where she finished her masters in Photography under Lon Clark at the AAU in San Francisco. She started her Reflection series at the Marin Headlands in California 2004 and has since then been continuing that project. Currently she’s just finished a series at the newly abandoned US Air Force Base in Keflavik, Iceland. She is now a collaborative show using the abandoned base as a source for artwork as well as the venue. Her work has been exhibited at the SFMOMA Artist Gallery in San Francisco and at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
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Collections Represented in Private Collections in the UK, USA and Iceland. Silja Truus: born in Tallinn, Estonia. After receiving a master’s degree in psychology and using scientific methods to explore and describe human experience she decided to follow her creative passions and become an artist. Drawing and photography have been a big part of her life since childhood. Silja, an accomplished ceramicist in one-off porcelain sculptures, is now exploring her passion in photography. Silja’s work is often influenced by existential psychology, and aims to convey emotional response to human condition. She also draws inspiration from her long time interests in philosophy and Eastern religions. In 2004 Silja moved to London, last year she finished Foundation in Fine Art course at Camberwell College. She works in North London, sharing a studio with other artists. After winning competitions early in her art career she was invited to show her work in photo exhibitions in England and Estonia. She has now embarked on a series called ALL IS LIGHT, which depicts light as a symbol of spirituality and the substance beyond all matter.
This is London, est.1956, Issue 2754,
17 July 2009, page 14
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