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Description
Richard Misrach, one of today’s most prolific contemporary masters, is internationally renowned for his carefully considered, beautifully rendered epic works. In On the Beach, a lavishly produced, oversized monograph that features the long-awaited publication of this spectacular series, Misrach hones in on our delicate relationship to the sea. Light, color, and form are crucial components in Misrach’s explorations of difficult subjects. In this body of work he uses a gorgeous, slowly shifting color palette gleaned from changes in depth and tide; abstract patterns of waves and rippling water, and beaches both empty and cluttered. Throughout the series, Misrach carefully balances the minutiae of human gesture against the massive scale of the sea. In some images, a lone figure floats in a liquid field of brilliant turquoise—or in others, lies beached and partially buried. The details in the images are frequently ambiguous—are the figures relaxed or drained of life? Cavorting in the surf or panicking in the riptide? The balance is a fragile one between control and surrender to the elements. As Misrach says, the work is “suffused with a sense of the sublime, but it also begins to expose our vulnerability and fragility as human beings.” Exhibition Schedule: Contemporary Museum, Honolulu December 14, 2007 – March 2, 2008 National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. May 25 – September 1, 2008 Henry Art Gallery, Seattle November 8, 2008 – February 8, 2009 High Museum of Art, Atlanta May 23 – August 16, 2009 This project was made possible, in part, with generous support from the Harriett Ames Charitable Trust. RICHARD MISRACH (born 1949, Los Angeles) has exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad. His work is represented in many permanent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Art Institute of Chicago. Misrach is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, four National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and Germany’s Kulturpreis for Lifetime Achievement in Photography. His publications include Desert Cantos (1987), Bravo 20: The Bombing of the American West (1990), Violent Legacies (Aperture, 1992), Crimes and Splendors: The Desert Cantos of Richard Misrach (1996), The Sky Book (2000), and most recently, Pictures of Paintings (2003). He lives in Berkeley, California. |
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