For its Second Récit, the Galerie Coutaz offers a journey through the fantasy worlds of Elizabeth Lennard and Robin Plus. Each in their own way, the two artists bring an ambiguity, a mystery, a poetry of color to reality. Combining historical works and new creations, the exhibition runs until September 2, 2023. We present to you today the work of Elisabeth Lennard.
Elizabeth Lennard
Born in 1953 in New York, Elizabeth Lennard studied art in San Francisco where she took lessons from photoreporter Tony-Ray Jones. Her work combines two mediums: photography and painting, an assembly that allows her to distance us from reality.
The photographs presented are gelatin silver prints where the artist affixes her colors to transcribe the image. Each of the works is then unique and transgresses the supposed reproducibility of the photographs. The prints on metallic paper are made from these same painted photographs.
In 1973, when she photographed the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, the columns of the building challenged her. She notices their omnipresence in the architecture of San Francisco and decides to meet their ascendant sisters in the Mediterranean. A column, high, massive or slender, is there in front of us, and fulfills a precise technical function: to support the portico of a facade. But beyond its technical capacities, it serves many other functions: that of space, history, travel, beauty and pleasure. A column can be offensive by its strength and size. It is up to us to tame it or let ourselves be overwhelmed by its greatness.
Elizabeth Lennard presents part of their history by following in the footsteps of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and Bernard Berenson (1865-1959), travelers of their time, who through their stories share experiences and ideas of romanticism.
Elizabeth Lennard therefore criss-crossed Italy, crossing Isola Bella off Stressa, the Via Sacra de Paestum in Campania, the valley of the temples of Agrigento and its Greek ruins from the 5th century BC, which she finds in Pergamon in present-day Turkey.
New York and cinema facades are also part of this story.
The architectural orders of the columns have crossed time, style and borders and it did not escape the eye of Elizabeth Lennard who incorporated them into the fantasy of her universe.
Elizabeth Lennard’s work is also presented at 21bis Mirabeau in Aix en Provence as part of the Grand Arles Express of the Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles festival, from June 14 to October 1.
Elizabeth Lennard / Robin Plus
Until September 2, 2023
Matthieu Coutaz
7 rue Baléchou, Arles, 13200
Du 30 juin au 2 septembre 2023
www.galeriecoutaz.com
