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Concrete Abstractions: by Craig Cowan
Details of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House, Los Angeles, California

Framed set of 17 prints                                    $25,000.00

All works are:palladium toned platinum print, signed, and dated in pencil and blind stamp “Craig Cowan Platinum/Palladium Print”, along lower margin, under the matt.

There is a limited supply of individual images available. See listing below.

 

Plate I: Staircase in the central courtyard     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate II: Bridgeway and staircase, taken from the roof     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate III: Staircase, central courtyard, and bridgeway,
taken from the roof     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate IV: Doorway to the central courtyard     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate V: Colonnade, central courtyard     1991
16-¼” x 20-¼” (framed)

 

Plate VI: Single column in the courtyard colonnade     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate VII: Hollyhock design on one of the courtyard columns     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate VIII: Detail of the bas-relief over the living room fireplace     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate IX: Detail of the bas-relief over the living room fireplace     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate X: Detail of the bas-relief over the living room fireplace     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate XI: Detail of the bas-relief over the living room fireplace     1991
16-¼” x 20-¼” (framed)

 

Plate XII: Detail of the bas-relief over the living room fireplace     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate XIII: Detail of the hollyhock design on a living room column     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate XIV: Detail of the hollyhock design on a living room column     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate XV: Detail of the hollyhock design on a living room column     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate XVI: Detail of the hollyhock design on a living room column     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)
 

Plate XVII: Detail of the door frame between the library and the gallery     1991
20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)

Individual prints of Concrete Abstractions available for purchase
and quantity available.

All images, except Plate XV, are signed, dated in pencil and blind stamp “Craig Cowan Platinum/Palladium Print”, along lower margin

Plate I: Staircase in the central courtyard     1991
11” x 9” (image); 16” x 12” (paper)     $1,800 (one available)

Plate V: Colonnade, central courtyard     1991
 9” x 11” (image); 12” x 16” (paper)      $1,800 (two available)

Plate VI: Single column in the courtyard colonnade     1991
 11” x 9” (image); 16” x 12” (paper)      $1,800 (one available)

Plate XV: Detail of the hollyhock design on a living room column     1991
 11” x 9” (image); 16” x 12” (paper); 20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)      $1,800 (one available)
not signed, but dated by Craig Cowan in pencil, lower right as well as blind stamp “Craig Cowan Platinum/Palladium Print” lower center margin on recto; estate stamped on verso

Plate XVI: Detail of the hollyhock design on a living room column     1991
 11” x 9” (image); 16” x 12” (paper); 20-¼” x 16-¼” (framed)       $1,800 (one available)

 

 





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The Judson Gallery of Contemporary and Traditional Art
DAVID JUDSON, DIRECTOR
PRESENTS

      

MAESTROS OF CUBAN PHOTOGRAPHY:
RAÚL CORRALES AND ALBERTO KORDA
In the Main Gallery
(Click to view exhibition installation)

 PHOTOGRAPHY BY CRAIG COWAN: CONCRETE ABSTRACTIONS Details of the Hollyhock House, Los Angeles, California
In the Hall Gallery
(Click to view exhibition installation)

Curated by Prof. Ronald E. Steen, Art Historian and Art Educator

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2006
FILM SHOWING, 5-7 p.m. & EXHIBITION RECEPTION, 7-8 p.m.

KordaVision: A Cuban Revelation
A Hector Cruz Sandoval Film
A discussion and Q&A with Darrel Couturier and the director will follow the showing.
This film qualifies for Academy Award ® 2006 Consideration “Best Feature Documentary” $5 per person. Limited seating. Advance reservations with payment required.
Call (800) 445-8376, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

Exhibition Continues: Monday, January 23, through Friday, April 7, 2006
Gallery hours: Mon.- Fri. 10 to 3

ABOUT THE CORRALES/KORDA EXHIBITION IN THE MAIN GALLERY: This exhibition includes the photojournalistic work of two of Cuba’s “Maestros”, Raúl Corrales and Alberto Korda. These premier photographers of the Cuban Revolution broadcast to the world the historic events of the late 1950s and early ‘60s. Far beyond the documentary nature of historical events their work had an uncanny ability to telegraph human stories of great drama with natural, unposed yet carefully composed images of humanity.

ABOUT RAúL CORRALES: It is impossible to talk about the history of Cuban photography without including Raúl Corrales. One of Cuba’s premier photographers of the 20 th century, his now famous images of the Cuban Revolution, along with those by his colleagues Alberto Korda and Osvaldo Salas (among others), documented to the world the historic events of the late 1950s and early ‘60s. Corrales’ work, however, has a particular distinction that distances him from his photographic compadres in that his vision comes to him not by accident, but from the rites of birth into poverty and a meager childhood.

Corrales was born Raúl Corral Fornos in 1925 in Ciego de Avila, Cuba. He spent his first 11 years living from hand to mouth until his mother moved the family to Havana seeking work. It was in Havana, in 1938, that he acquired his first camera while holding jobs as a bellboy in a café and selling newspapers and magazines. These publications became his first “teacher,” especially the American magazines Life and Look. From them he learned to distinguish snapshots from photographic art.

After a string of menial jobs and a stroke of luck by being in the right place at the right time, Corrales became a professional photographer for the newspapers “Ultima Hora” and “Hoy” for which he accompanied the Party leaders on their tours of Havana and the countryside. In the ‘40s and ‘50s he worked as a graphic reporter for the weeklies “Carteles” and “ Bohemia.” He eventually became the head of photography of a major publicity agency in the ‘50s. Corrales was also given a special assignment at the paper Revolución, where he worked as a graphic reporter, covering the activities of Fidel Castro during the difficult years of struggle. This was to be a significant appointment ultimately leading to his being named one of Castro’s “official” photographers as well as one of the official photographers of the Revolution.

Corrales created some of the most dramatically arresting images of the Cuban Revolution and the period leading up to it. His difficult and poor years as a child and adolescent never escaped him. Corrales’ early compositions portray and comment on the underclass and the social contrasts that existed. In the photo Stetson, 1948, Corrales portrays a campesino (peasant) wearing a torn straw hat over a stern face, the irony laying in his titling of the work, in La botas de mayoral, 1955, we see only two pairs of legs from the knees down, one pair shod in calf-high boots, the other barefoot with rolled up pant legs, Corrales’ subtly astute commentary on class distinction. The irony in Beautyrest, 1948 , his sweet portrait of two children sleeping in a meager hammock, lies in the title take from the popular mattress brand of the time.

Corrales’ sense of drama and witness was not at all lost during the heady days of the Revolution. One cannot avoid noticing the anachronism in Caballería, 1960of seeing a cavalry of militia men wearing straw hats festooned with the Cuban tricolor while holding Cuban flags advancing directly towards the

viewer, an image that conjures up the 19 th century only to realize the image is mid 20 th century. This image symbolizes the grass-root strength and fierce determination of the revolutionaries. No image of the Revolution better describes the solidarity of the Cubans than Sombreritos, La Habana, 1960, depicting a platoon in formation, seen from above, looking down on their white straw hats contrasted with their dark uniforms, all punctuated by their vertically held rifles.

The exhibition will also include Corrales’ images of the noted writer Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway, one of Corrales’ best friends, kept his boat “Pilar” in Cojimar where Corrales lived (and still lives). In addition to images of Hemingway himself, photographs of the interior of Hemingway’s home taken immediately after his death offer fascinating insights into the private life of one of this century’s literary geniuses.

ABOUT ALBERTO KORDA: née Alberto Diaz Gutiérrez (September 14,1928 in La Habana, Cuba), has been a celebrated photographer since the 1950’s when he revolutionized the art of fashion photography in Cuba with his work for various magazines. His fashion photos were more than simply shots of beautiful models dressed in couture of the day. Their compositions were avant garde combining starkness and abstractions not then associated with fashion. It is interesting to note Korda’s idol amongst fashion photographers was Richard Avedon, who was also defining a singular stark style that would become his signature (the two actually did meet in the late 1950’s). It was also during this period of the 1950’s that he acquired the moniker Korda from the two greatly admired Hungarian film directors, Zoltan and Alexander Korda.

Social conditions in Cuba in the 1950’s were to force a dramatic change in the country and, as a consequence, a shift in Korda’s focus. Under the corrupt dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, the country was being robbed blind, many thousands were executed, the rich got richer, unemployment soared and the poor suffered hideous living conditions. Batista fled Cuba January 1, 1959 as Fidel Castro and Ché Guevara led the revolution attacking his regime. Korda’s sympathies lay with the underclass and the revolution. Already greatly respected as a photojournalist, he was asked by the revolutionary leaders to document the events. His documentary style was infused with much of the same care for composition seen in his fashion photography. This did not go unnoticed by Fidel or Ché who made Korda one of the official photographers of the revolution, allowing him to travel everywhere with them for almost a decade. Amongst Korda’s first, and most poignant, images symbolizing the dire condition of the Cuban people is the image La niña de la muñeca de palo (Cuba, 1959) depicting a disheveled little girl clutching her doll made of a piece of wood dressed with remnants of a rag. Other memorable images would follow such as El Quijote de la farola, La Habana 1959, which was taken at Fidel’s first public speech to the people of Cuba. This brilliant image of solitude and solidarity shows a lithe young man, cigarette in hand, wearing a straw hat adorned with the Cuban flag, straddling a street lamppost high above the throngs on the street below him. Images of Ché playing golf, Fidel dwarfed by the Lincoln Memorial on a visit to Washington D.C. in 1959, the stunning image of Fidel and Ché seen from behind in profile while sitting and talking on the back of a fishing boat (1959), Fidel snow skiing in Russia (1962), Ché being interviewed by Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, were all to give Korda world-wide recognition.

No image, however, was to have as much global impact as that of Ché Guevara taken in 1960. This most famous iconographic image became a symbol of martyrdom, a mythic symbol of strength, rebellion and tragedy. It was taken March 5, 1960 during the funeral of the victims of the explosion of “La Coubre,” a boat carrying arms for the revolution and sabotaged in Havana harbor. The photo was not published in the papers as part of the news reports on the event, and Korda printed it and placed it on the wall of his studio. Only once was it used in the press while Ché was alive while he was Minister of the Banco Nacional de Cuba. In 1967 Gianfranco Feltrinelli, an Italian publisher, visited Korda’s studio, saw the photo and asked Korda for, and was given, a copy as a gift. When he learned months later of Ché’s death in Bolivia, Feltrinelli, without Korda’s permission, printed a million posters of this image of Ché and distributed them throughout Europe. Korda never received one cent in royalties for the use of his famous photograph, though it continues to adorn everything from book covers to bottle caps. According to the noted Italian art critic Giuliana Scimé, the Mona Lisa and this photo of Ché are probably the two most reproduced art historical images in the world.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION: The first exhibitions in the United States of work by Corrales and Korda were held at the Couturier Gallery under the direction of Darrel Couturier, who has maintained a relationship with each of these artists as well as an ongoing historical archive of their work. Korda’s work was exhibited Oct. 23 through Nov. 28, 1998 and Corrales’ July 15 through August 21, 1999.

CORRALES/KORDA EXHIBITION PUBLICATION: Available with essay, “Cuban Revolutionary Photography: The Legacy & Currency of Corrales & Korda”, by Lyn Boyd, PhD, Adjunct Faculty, USC Annenberg School for Communication, School of Journalism. Data for this article was obtained from Darrel Couturier and his archive.

ABOUT THE COWAN EXHIBITION IN THE HALL GALLERY:“Concrete Abstractions”, is a photographic study of the Hollyhock House from April through September of 1991 by Craig Cowan as a study of selected details which interpret the spiritual and material components inherent in the architecture of the home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, resulting in a suite of 17 images.

ABOUT COWAN’S HOLLYHOCK HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHY IN HIS OWN WORDS: “ As usual in my work, there were two aspects which engaged my interest. One was the physical presence of the building itself and the challenge of rendering that solidity in a tactile way using photographic means. The other was the spiritual presence of the architectural concept-and the challenge of interpreting these ideas by isolating and abstracting certain elements of Wright's designs. The physicality of the building for me is most intensely expressed in the elements executed in concrete throughout the interior and exterior of the house. It is in these same elements that one finds the spirituality embodied in the abstraction of the designs. Therefore I focused on Concrete Abstractions, a photographic study of selected details which would interpret the spiritual and material components inherent in the architecture.

The excitement for me was to reinterpret Wright's work using photographic means. This included selective composition, as well as the manipulative control of filtration, exposure, and development. But furthermore, I decided to use an alternative photographic process-hand-coated platinum/palladium printing-because of the expressive qualities inherent in it. This process allows the image to be printed on a lightly textured paper that helps communicate the surface granularity of the concrete. Other advantages to using the platinum/palladium process are its rich tonal range, luminous middle values, and superior archival qualities. The black brush strokes bordering the images create a window which reminds the viewer that the appearance of the three dimensional image is an illusion, which heightens the abstraction. However, the tonal characteristics of platinum/palladium, which usually impart a soft and luminous quality to the image, had to be manipulated to capture the hardness and severity of the subject.”

EXHIBITION PUBLICTION: Limited edition of 15 books in a slipcase, signed & dated by the artist accompanied by an 8x10” toned gelatin silver print of the cover image. To purchase call (800) 445-8376, Mon-Fri. 9 – 1

Plate VI: Single column in the courtyard colonnade, 1991
by Craig Cowan
Platinum/Palladium Print
11” x 9”


Limited Edition Book , in a
slipcase, signed and dated by the artist, including a 8x10” separate toned gelatin silver print of the cover image

Illustrations on page one. All reproduction rights reserved by the artists.

Sombreritos (1960), 2003
by Raul Corrales
gelatin silver print
11” x 14” 11” x 14”

Guerrillero Herocico (Cropped), 1960
by Alberto Korda
gelatin silver print
11” x 14”

 

ART EDUCATION PROGRAMS

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 2006
FILM SHOWING, 5-7 p.m. & EXHIBITION RECEPTION, 7-8 p.m.

 KordaVision: A Cuban Revelation
A Hector Cruz Sandoval Film
A discussion and Q&A with Darrel Couturier and the director will follow the showing.
This film qualifies for Academy Award ® 2006 Consideration “Best Feature Documentary”
$5 per person. Limited seating. Advance reservations with payment required.
Call (800) 445-8376, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Korda in Havana, 1956
Still photo from documentary, KordaVision
All reproduction rights reserved by the artist.

 

“KordaVision” is an illuminating graphic documentary featuring, world-renowned Cuban photographer, Alberto Diaz “Korda”. An insightful journey of historic proportions, revealing the powerful images captured by Korda, reflecting Cuba’s soul of the 50’s and 60’s, the days of Fashion, Rum and The Revolution. We relive the moment of Korda’s iconic image “Guerillero Heroico” of “El Che” which is the most famous photograph of the 20 th Century. Director Hector Cruz Sandoval reunites Alberto Korda, Raúl Corrales, Liborio Noval , and Roberto Salas with “El Comandante” Fidel Castro, for the first time ever. The four giants of classic Cuban photography and Fidel discuss the impact their images have had on The Revolution and their effect throughout the world. A sensational soundtrack accompanies the film, representing Cuba’s best music: featuring an original score by Maestro Leo Brouwer and music by Carlos Embale, Carlos Puebla, P18, Beny Moré, Los Zafiros, Ramón Velóz and Los Compadres. Darrel Couturier and his archive played an enormous role in the idea and development of this film.

Group Tours: The Photography Exhibitions
Wednesdays, 10 a.m. and at 2 p.m. Tour format approx. 1 ½ hr.
$10.00 per person. Group minimum 20.
Call (800) 445-8376 Tour reservations and events coordinator

ABOUT THE JUDSON GALLERY: Judson Studios was originally the School of Fine Art and Architecture of U.S.C. William Lees Judson was the founder and first Dean of the School. The spacious, high ceiling, northern-lit studio, which today is The Judson Gallery of Contemporary and Traditional Art, was used for large drawing and painting classes. The rest of the building contained studio space for the students and dorms. In 1920 when USC centralized its campus the Judson Studios moved into the building. Founded in 1897, the Studios has continued to manufacturer stained glass, or what it is more commonly referred to in contemporary terms as, architectural glass. Judson Studios is still family run, and is currently owned by Karen Judson, and directed by David Judson, fourth and fifth generation respectively. Today the Studios bring a 21 st century aesthetic and technology sensibility to the facility and the craft, with over 100 years of tradition and experience. The philosophy of the gallery is to showcase all forms of contemporary and traditional art which is well crafted.

These two exhibitions continue the Judson Gallery focus on art which is well crafted as well as themes of Realism.