CURRENT VIEWING: The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today August 1 – November 1, 2010: MOMA

Man Ray : Noire et blanche (Black and white). 1926 Gelatin silver print.The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of James Thrall

The press preview is next Tues and TI is actually re-booking a flight back to NYC to get an early glimpse. The exhilarating proposition behind this exhibit is its investigation of the intersections between photography and sculpture. But much more interesting than the your expected calvacade of photographed (and rephotographed) 19th and 20th century statuary is the narrative of the shift in ideas of art production from that 19th century period when modern photography was born, to our latter day condition of conceptual abstraction. That is both in terms of the idea of what sculpture AND photography has become. Roxana Marocci has organized a truly exciting show that is bound to be thought provoking for anyone who takes, admires or is inspired by photographs. Take this excerpt for instance, from the press release ..."Through crop, focus, angle of view, degree of close-up, and lighting, as well as through ex post facto techniques of dark room manipulation, collage, montage, and assemblage, photographers have not only interpreted sculpture but have created stunning reinventions of it." Between the likes of Eugène Atget, Man Ray, Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, David Goldblatt, Auguste Rodin, Constantin Brancusi, David Smith, Hannah Höch, Sophie Taeuber-Arp to Bruce Nauman, Fischli/Weiss, Rachel Harrison, and Cyprien Gaillard, expect an epic visual travelogue. It's a history of images and an image of history in one succinct exhibition!