Lee Friedlander Framed by Joel Coen is the exhibition presented until June 24 by the Luhring Augustine Chelsea Gallery in New York.
A fabulous photographer and a fabulous director: it’s quite pleasant to see!
Curated by the widely acclaimed filmmaker Joel Coen, the exhibition showcases approximately 45 of Friedlander’s photographs that span the range of his 60+ year career, bringing into the equation many lesser- known images. Rather than focusing on a single subject or period, Coen’s selection concentrates on Friedlander’s singular approach to composition and evidences an unexpected affinity between the two artists, both of whose work explores the sly power of images.
Friedlander, Coen, and McDormand, long admirers of each other’s work, met in the spring of 2022 at Friedlander’s home in Upstate New York. During the day-long visit the artists studied hundreds of photographs, which ultimately led to the selection represented in the exhibition and the accompanying publication. This group of images is focused on compositions that are dense and off-kilter, often bisected by stop signs and utility poles, car doors and windshields, trees and shadows.
As a filmmaker, I liked the idea of creating a sequence that would highlight Lee’s unusual approach to framing—his splitting, splintering, repeating, fracturing, and reassembling elements into new and impossible compositions. – Joel Coen
I was present when these two guys met for the first time and observed a familiarity that comes from their lifetimes of singular and eccentric visions… Neither would naturally refer to himself as an Artist. Yet they have honed their crafts over decades of practice, and those of us who cannot see the way they see have no other way to describe what they do but “art.” – Frances McDormand
Lee Friedlander Framed by Joel Coen
May 13 – June 24, 2023
Luhring Augustine Chelsea
531 West 24th Street
New York NY 10011
www.luhringaugustine.com
Concurrent with the exhibition at Luhring Augustine, Lee Friedlander Framed by Joel Coen will also be on view at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco (May 6 – June 24, 2023).
