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New York : Lillian Bassman

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Edwynn Houk Gallery presents its exclusive representation of the Estate of Lillian Bassman and its first exhibition of the artist’s photographs. The show will feature more than 30 photographs tracing the legendary fashion photographer’s stylistic development from early vintage prints to her reinterpreted prints made in the 1990s.

A seminal figure in the history of fashion photography, Lillian Bassman’s photographs appeared on the pages of Harper’s Bazaar from the 1940s through the 1960s. She trained and worked under famed art director Alexey Brodovitch, eventually becoming art director of Junior Bazaar in 1945, until the magazine’s closing in 1948. While working as art director, Bassman regularly hired  photographers such as Richard Avedon, Arnold Newman, and Robert Frank. By 1946, Bassman began taking her own photographs and swiftly transitioned from art director to fashion photographer. Her first photograph was published in Bazaar in 1946 and her first editorial story in 1948.
Known for blurred silhouettes, exaggerated gestures, and unusual compositions, Bassman’s photographs illustrate the mystery and glamour of the modern woman. Transforming her images with bleaching and toning techniques in the darkroom, she introduced a new aesthetic and revolutionized fashion photography.
In the early 1970s, disillusioned by the state of the commercial world of fashion photography, Bassman left the industry and destroyed most of her negatives and prints. Twenty years later, she discovered a box of negatives and began re-interpreting them. Using the darkroom, and later the computer, she would change the original framing, accentuate contrast and blurriness and retouch the background. These singular images led to a renewed interest in her work among editors, curators, and collectors.
EXHIBITION
Lillian Bassman
From May 12th to July 8th, 2016
Hook Gallery
745 Fifth Avenue
New York NY 10151
[email protected]
http://www.houkgallery.com

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