{"id":18922,"date":"2013-05-04T21:53:59","date_gmt":"2013-05-05T01:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=18922"},"modified":"2013-05-28T13:38:36","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T17:38:36","slug":"arnaud-maggs-views","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=18922","title":{"rendered":"Scotiabank Photography Award: Arnaud Maggs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadian artist Arnaud Maggs<\/em>\u2019 artistic legacy continues to influence and inspire Toronto this month with the premiere of Spring & Arnaud by Hot Docs and the opening of his Scotiabank Photography Award (SPA) exhibition at the Ryerson Image Centre (RIC). During the months before his passing, Maggs<\/em> was self-curating this exhibition at the RIC which contains four handpicked works surrounding themes of mortality, collecting, and portraiture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Arnaud Maggs, Andr\u00e9 Kert\u00e9sz, 144 Views<\/em>, detail, 1980 \u00a9 Estate of Arnaud Maggs, Courtesy of Susan Hobbs Gallery<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon entering the exhibition, a monumental display of Andr\u00e9 Kert\u00e9sz: 144 Views<\/em> (1980) astounds the senses. Assembled into a large-scale grid installation that is synonymous with Maggs<\/em>\u2019 practice, this never before exhibited work grants a glimpse into the artist\u2019s working process with the sequential portrait. Maggs<\/em>\u2019 persistence and attention to detail is demonstrated as Kert\u00e9sz<\/em> gradually turns and lets his guard down. In certain images, Kert\u00e9sz<\/em> appears to have fallen asleep on camera and in others he smiles as if he had just heard a witty joke. Although Kert\u00e9sz<\/em>\u2019s appearance and personality is portrayed in a multi-faceted light that appears to capture every facial twitch, every freckle, and every hair, Maggs\u2019 unyielding focus towards his subject does not shift, highlighting both his and Kert\u00e9sz<\/em>\u2019s character as photographers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span>Arnaud Maggs, Kunstakademie, <\/em>detail, 1980 \u00a9 Estate of Arnaud Maggs, Courtesy of Susan Hobbs Gallery<\/span><\/p>\n

In the main gallery space, two long works contrast each other on opposite sides of the room with a partial wall extruding from the center. Kunstakademie<\/em> (1980) is a series of 148 black-and-white frontal and profile-view portraits of students at the Staatliche Kunstakademie in D\u00fcsseldorf, Germany. In this piece, Maggs<\/em> establishes a timeless quality through social connectivity. Although this group may have played a part in fabricating the history of conceptual art, Maggs<\/em> portrays each individual in a humanizing light that exceeds their historical relevancy. Each individual is highly reminiscent of everyday people that one may have known, passed, or briefly encountered. In many cases, it is hard to not fall in love with the individuals that Maggs<\/em> has chosen because their gaze towards the viewer is so intimately seductive, yet distanced enough to maintain intriguing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0Arnaud Maggs, The Dada Portraits: Marcel Duchamp<\/em>, detail, 2010 \u00a9 Estate of Arnaud Maggs, Courtesy of Susan Hobbs Gallery<\/span><\/p>\n

At first glance, The Dada Portraits<\/em> (2010) appears to be representational portraits of seminal Dada artists. In actuality, they are based on architectural drawings of staircases from 1850. The comparison between this piece and Kunstakademie (1980) is quite curious. In one, <\/span>Maggs<\/em> creates the impression that mug shots of strangers possess the capability to generate an intimate connection, while in the other, Maggs<\/em> defaces and defamilarizes the famous. By using architectural lines and shapes along with names, The Dada Portraits evokes presumptions towards the lesser known names, and reiterates the personalities of the more popular artists.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span>Arnaud Maggs, After Nadar: Pierrot Turning,<\/em> detail, 2012 \u00a9 Estate of Arnaud Maggs, Courtesy of Susan Hobbs Gallery<\/span><\/p>\n

The final work in the exhibition comes as a surprise behind the wall from the center of the space. After Nadar: Pierrot Turning<\/em> (2012) is part of the larger After Nadar series of self-portraits. In particular, this series alludes to a Nadar self-portrait from 1864 and Charles Deburau the mime. Maggs<\/em> once commented on another image in the larger series which depicts himself holding a black banded envelope by confidently stating, \u201cIt is me playing with death.\u201d Perhaps this is why After Nadar Pierrot Turning<\/em> is such a difficult piece to confront. During my first encounter with this work, it was difficult to emphasize with Maggs<\/em> because unlike his more romantic pieces, here his assertiveness is intimating. The other three works in the exhibition feature delicate frames, ivory backgrounds, and stark subjects. The visual elements of this piece are the exact opposite of the others with thick black frames, a black velvet backdrop, and the artist himself in costume as Pierrot. Maggs<\/em> applied his meticulous nature to document and collect towards himself, pirouetting for the camera just many of his own subjects had done for him. <\/span><\/p>\n

The work is morbidly optimistic as Maggs<\/em> boldly stares ahead without any hesitation or fear in his expression. Yet at the same time, although we see all 360 degrees of Maggs<\/em>, the work still possesses a hint of coyness and mystery. Firstly, Maggs<\/em> is in costume wearing layers of caked makeup and secondly, the camera focused on the details of his face and his rounded spectacles slightly obscure the focus of his eyes. As the eyes are often considered the window into one\u2019s soul, Maggs<\/em> maintains a veil of playful secrecy and demonstrates that nothing is as clear as it seems. One of Maggs<\/em>\u2019 unique talents was photographing individuals without dissolving their mystery. <\/span><\/p>\n

This exhibition offers insight towards Maggs<\/em>\u2019 adoption of photography as\u00a0an artistic tool to document people and grants a glimpse of the photographer himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

The exhibition runs\u00a0till June 2, 2013\u00a0at the Ryerson Image Centre.<\/span><\/p>\n

*Thanks for Ryerson Image Centre Docent Tyler Webb<\/span><\/p>\n

Shellie Zhang<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Shellie Zhang<\/strong><\/p>\n

This exhibition offers insight towards Maggs\u2019 adoption of photography as an artistic tool to document people and grants a glimpse of the photographer himself.<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,129,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-shellie-zhang","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18922"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18927,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18922\/revisions\/18927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}