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16/10/2002

Fischer and Estrada

Von Lintel Gallery, New York

Space I

Roland Fischer
Photographs from the 'Nuns and Monks' Series

October 17 - November 23, 2002

Von Lintel gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of early photographs by Roland Fischer. Following the success of his Los Angeles Portraits and Façades, Fischer returns to Von Lintel Gallery with Nuns and Monks, an important body of work that initiated the artist's international breakthrough in the late eighties.

In Nuns and Monks, Fischer specifically examines the conceptual aspects of portraiture, focusing on a subject matter that already provides him with a form of abstraction: the strictly covered and therefore mystified bodies of his monastic models. Shot from the same perspective, each of these large-scale, frontal portraits shows the sitter's face isolated and framed by the black and white planes of the Cistercian monastic garment. Through this simplified and unifying formal device, Fischer reduces the human physiognomies to skin colored pictorial masses, which he then arranges according to his conceptual interest. The results are images that equally balance and employ organic and geometric structures in order to provoke visual tension.

Establishing a radiant presence in the exhibition space, the photographs succeed in creating a feeling of intimacy between the viewer and each portrayed individual. Hence, Nuns and Monks is far from being a collection of illustrative documents of characters that devote themselves to specific spiritual beliefs and life style, but rather translates as a symbolic abstraction of the universal question: What signifies individualism in general? The dialogue between freedom of spirit on the one hand, and limitations of defined forms on the other, are Fischer's primary focus; the interplay of interior and exterior realities, his inspirational source. In an interview with Norbert Bauer, Fischer explains:

In those of my pictures that include a human face, only half of that picture is actually a 'portrait'. After all, the face itself occupies only about fifty percent of the pictorial field. The other half is no less important to me. Therefore I'm not interested in showing how many different individuals there are. Rather the question I want to ask is: What is this, the individual?

Born in 1958, Roland Fischer is a key figure in contemporary German photography. His work has been subject of many national and international exhibitions and is included in numerous collections, such as at the Musée d'art Moderne de la ville de Paris, Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich, and American Express Financial Services.

Opening reception: Thursday, October 17, 6-8 p.m.
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Space II

Yvonne Estrada
Works on Paper

October 17-November 23, 2002

Von Lintel Gallery is proud to introduce new works on paper by Yvonne Estrada in an exhibition that marks the artist's first solo show in the United States.

Resembling molecular configurations, the intricate imagery depicted in Estrada's work varies in complexity. Ranging from multiple layered compositions with minute and intervowen detail to bold expressionistic gestures that speak simply through the force of immediate release, her works on paper succeed in creating a unique language with an extraordinary sense of poetic beauty.

Estrada's work develops as interplay between allowance, chaos and control. The drawing process is as essential to her work as the emotional content. While largely drawn from the organic, her inspirational sources and aesthetic influences are eclectic, including Leonardo da Vinci's studies of nature, Japanese and Chinese painting, calligraphy, designs and patterns from the decorative arts, as well as her interest in the subconscious and the tension between dynamics. Works on Paper introduces a sophisticated body of work that explores such universal themes as transcendence and the interconnection among all things, in a playful, yet determined fashion.

Yvonne Estrada was born in Bogota, Colombia and has lived in New York since 1980.

Opening reception: Thursday, October 17, 6-8 PM.

For further information, please contact the gallery at 212 242 0599

VON LINTEL GALLERY
555 West 25th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10001
T: 212 242 0599
F: 212 242 0803

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