Catherine Opie: Retrospective at the Guggenheim
Catherine Opie is perhaps one of the most significant living photographers of our century. Her mid-career retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York closed last week after a four-month run.
Her work came to prominence in the mid 1990s when Opie began exhibiting photos of her friends in the queer leather culture, much the way Robert Mapplethorpe did some 20 years earlier.
Robert Mapplethorpe, self-portrait (left), Catherine Opie, Ron Athey (right)
Opie's portraits of queer-identified women and men brought identity politics into the realm of fine art for the first time. Opie says, however, she is just continuing a dialogue of image making that goes back to the great German Renaissance painter Hans Holbein the Younger.
Hans Holbein, Sir Thomas Moore (left), Catherine Opie, self-portrait (right)
Catherine Opie's works go far beyond portraiture to still life, domestic scenes, city and landscapes and sports in an exploration of Americana. Before the holidays, we had the opportunity to tour Catherine's show with her, walking through four floors of the Guggenheim discussing her work.
video and location shots by Megan Ghiroli
Comments [17]
My work is more truthful
My work is more truthful
http://i349.photobucket.com/albums/q393/alittle_photos/SFrally1979.jpg
Ahh! What a terrific
Ahh! What a terrific video.
I'm so happy to see more, new engaging and interesting material on VelvetPark's website. Especially now that that other site where so many VelvetPark editors/contributors were publishing blogs regularly is slated to disappear on Monday.
It's fabulous to see a young
It's fabulous to see a young dyke (by my standards anyway) doing a RETROSPECTIVE (wow!) at the Guggenheim (double wow!) and even more impressive featuring such great queer images (that's more than a triple wow). Her work is fabulous. I love it that she's is so well-recognized in the mainstream of the art world. Thanks for sharing the vid.
Great Video, great artist...
Great Video, great artist...
Wow! What a great video. I
Wow! What a great video. I finally made it out to NYC this past year, but I missed this exhibit by a couple of months. Curses!
Probably a good thing I
Probably a good thing I didn't hear about the show while it was still on. I probably would have gone further into debt to see it. Nice piece, Grace.
"Syncer" here.......happens
"Syncer" here.......happens quite often.....
Good vibes,
Tex
Twitter Time @kdhales
Was every single art model
Was every single art model female??
[...] Catherine Opie’s
[...] Catherine Opie’s exhibition at the Guggenheim. See what she’s all about in this video from Velvet Park. Totally worth a watch, even if you missed seeing her pieces live. [...]
Thank you, thank you, thank
Thank you, thank you, thank you for that tour with Catherine Opie. That was fascinating, GM.
I want a mustache.
Still searching for the right brainy quote.
Outstanding Grace! This is
Outstanding Grace!
This is definately thought provoking.
Her work appears so natural and uninhibited ....... Catherine Opie is an extremely gifted woman, with an incredible eye for the figurative language, and imagery of the dyke community... beautiful presentation.
Thank you for sharing it with us.
Thanks for posting that,
Thanks for posting that, Grace. I thought I recognized the images from the photographs from TLW vignette when Bette and Tina first meet at Bette’s gallery during an art dinner in her honor. I love that TLW has real art in scenes throughout the episodes.
Thank you. It's great. I
Thank you. It's great. I suppose that everybody would have had it in mind anyway. I put the link to show off.
Yes, I'm sorry to not have
Yes, I'm sorry to not have included that in my intro.
Catherine and her work have been featured in TLW many times.
Her portraits are in the opening sequence, and she was in S1.
If my memory serves, she appears with her works in the vignette when Bette and Tina first meet at Bette's gallery during an art dinner in her honor.
tweet tweet @gracemoon
OK we thought about it at the
OK we thought about it at the same time!
You know Tex, it's not the first time we have thoughts transmission.
watching your video, I was
watching your video, I was wondering about the credits title (do you say "generic"?) of TLW, when you see Bette turning around... and I went back to it :
yes, the photographs are hers !
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=ycMSpzDNeOw
I like her strangeness (we are between photograph and painting) and her sense of humour.
Ah, art........thanks.
Ah, art........thanks. Introduced myself to Catherine's art when researching the mustache portraits on the intro to TLW......there has been some heavyweight art in the background of TLW
Two Girls Brand,
Tex
Twitter Time @kdhales