January 6 – February 12, 2005
Opening reception:
Thursday, January 6th
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
ClampArt is pleased to announce “Mirrors: Photographs by Jeannette Montgomery Barron,” which coincides with the release of the artist’s book of the same title. “Mirrors” is Montgomery Barron’s third monograph, and includes a text by esteemed author, Edmund White.
Jeannette Montgomery Barron first established her artistic reputation as a portrait photographer in New York City in the 1980s. Photographing members of the art and literary scenes, some of her most well-known images include portraits of Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat, Cindy Sherman, Susan Sontag, and William Burroughs, among many, many others. Montgomery Barron’s first book, titled simply “Photographs,” included this body of work, and was published by Bruno Bischofberger in 1990.
After the publication of “Photographs,” Montgomery Barron largely turned away from portraiture in favor of still-life work. In the artist’s compositions, she juxtaposed manmade objects with elements of nature in various states of imperfection. Montgomery Barron developed the series over the next several years, and the group of photographs was eventually published by Scalo in 1998 accompanied by poems by Pulitzer Prize winner, Jorie Graham.
“Mirrors” is Montgomery Barron’s third major series of work. Dissatisfied with attempts at literal self-portraiture, the artist began employing mirrors as metaphors for the self. Each image signifies the artist and her mood the particular day the photograph was produced. At turns quiet, sad, frenzied, and even broken, all of the gelatin silver prints are notably elegant, representing Montgomery Barron’s most sophisticated work to date. Each mirror, throwing back an image it has captured, is a wonderfully complicated and appropriate stand-in for not only the photographic medium, but also the photographic artist herself.