Bob Mizer
dal 28/7/2004 al 11/9/2004
Segnalato da
28/7/2004
Bob Mizer
Western Project, Culver City
The First Exhibition, Selected Works from 1945 - 1969.
The First Exhibition, Selected Works from 1945 Â 1969
Reception Friday July 31st, 5 Â 9pm
Western Project is proud to present the first solo exhibition by Bob Mizer.
Perhaps the most influential twentieth century photographer of the male
physique, Mizer is also the most under-recognized. His photography was a
seedbed for a myriad of image makers, both amateur and professional - such
as Robert Mapplethorpe, David Hockney, Jim French, Bruce Weber and Andy
Warhol. Using home made sets, or light and slide projections, the artist
prefigured what would later become 'constructed' photography in the early
1980's. Mizer also produced the widely circulated men's magazine, Physique
Pictorial, which introduced and promoted the artists, Quaintance and Tom of
Finland to the world at large.
By producing Physique Pictorial, Mizer
infiltrated/flooded American culture with images of men and a fantastic
spectrum of masculinity. Working out of his house in Los Angeles, Mizer
created his legendary studio, Athletic Model Guild, part business, part
watering hole and wayward house for youths, but primarily ground zero for
the new era of male imagery. With a knowledge of art history and film,
Mizer's work was meticulous, intelligent, humorous, and eloquent  a
language that could only come from the mid-century, golden age of Southern
California. With out a doubt, Mizer must now truly be counted as a father of
the sexual revolution. It is not ironic that the male eroticism in today's
Abercrombie and Fitch advertisements, was born in the 1940's in a garage in
Los Angeles.
What distinguished his images was the quality of obsession (as Picasso was
to women); Mizer was unapologetically a fan of men - from his homemade sets
to the handmade costumes - Mizer was the ultimate fan of the male form. As
a pioneer of modern gay erotica, the artist worked nearly fifty years,
photographing over ten thousand models, and producing just under one million
black and white, and color images. Western Project will be exhibiting a
selected group of photographs from the first half of Mizer's career, along
with props, costumes, collages and set pieces from the AMG studio. The
exhibition is intended as an introduction to a history of images - of
primary information, aesthetically and socially important to the nature of
who we are, and what we culturally value today.
Image:
Bob Mizer, 'Vince Gironda', circa 1950's,
silver gelatin print, 20 x 16 inches, edition of 10.
Western Project
3830 Main St., Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 838-0609, fax (310) 838-0610