In Recollections in America, photographer David LaChapelle utilizes a unique production process in which he builds “neo-collages” from acquired photographs taken during intimate family gatherings in America during the 1970-1980’s. By introducing additional objects and people, which otherwise have nothing to do with the original images, the artist creates dystopian retrogrades.
Preventing the viewer from discerning the original snapshots from the re-imagined, the nuanced manipulations (flags, firearms, slogans and other signs of American power) act to heighten the symbolism, and inherent contradiction of the American “Dream” already present in the source period photographs.
David LaChapelle (b. 1963) attended high school at North Carolina School of the Arts before moving to New York in the mid 1980’s. He began showing in East Village galleries and soon after was offered a job by Andy Warhol to work at Interview magazine. With his unique approach to image making and groundbreaking vision, the photographer expanded the genre of photography through his widely recognizable staged pictures. By 1991, The New York Times predicted “LaChapelle is certain to influence the work of a new generation…in the same way that Mr. Avedon pioneered so much of what is familiar today.” Over the past thirty years, LaChapelle’s prolific body of work has established the photographer as a fixture in contemporary art. His portrait, stage and film works have become iconic archetypes of America in the 21st Century.
Selected Public Collections: Bayerische Staatsoper Portrait Gallery, Munich;; Brandhorst Foundation, Munich;; Daimler Art Collection, Stuttgart;; La Monnaie de Paris;; National Portrait Gallery, London; LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles;; Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Groninger Museum, Groningen;; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv.
Opening:
Wednesday, April 25, 2018, 6–9 pm
April 26 - June 7, 2018
GALERIE BENE TASCHEN Moltkestr. 81, 50674 Cologne www.benetaschen.com
Preventing the viewer from discerning the original snapshots from the re-imagined, the nuanced manipulations (flags, firearms, slogans and other signs of American power) act to heighten the symbolism, and inherent contradiction of the American “Dream” already present in the source period photographs.
David LaChapelle (b. 1963) attended high school at North Carolina School of the Arts before moving to New York in the mid 1980’s. He began showing in East Village galleries and soon after was offered a job by Andy Warhol to work at Interview magazine. With his unique approach to image making and groundbreaking vision, the photographer expanded the genre of photography through his widely recognizable staged pictures. By 1991, The New York Times predicted “LaChapelle is certain to influence the work of a new generation…in the same way that Mr. Avedon pioneered so much of what is familiar today.” Over the past thirty years, LaChapelle’s prolific body of work has established the photographer as a fixture in contemporary art. His portrait, stage and film works have become iconic archetypes of America in the 21st Century.
Selected Public Collections: Bayerische Staatsoper Portrait Gallery, Munich;; Brandhorst Foundation, Munich;; Daimler Art Collection, Stuttgart;; La Monnaie de Paris;; National Portrait Gallery, London; LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles;; Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Groninger Museum, Groningen;; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv.
Opening:
Wednesday, April 25, 2018, 6–9 pm
April 26 - June 7, 2018
GALERIE BENE TASCHEN Moltkestr. 81, 50674 Cologne www.benetaschen.com
