The German news paper FAZ has reviewed our exhibition “Yutaka Takanashi – Photography 1965 – 1974″.
Are, bure boke: Radical aethetics in Japanese
“… Cologne gallery Priska Pasquer is showing in a gorgeous exhibition some historic prints by Yutaka Takanashi from “Toshi-e”. Taken out of context of the narrative especially some of the dark prints achieve an iconic quality. (…) On occasion of the exhibition an impressively beautiful monograph has been published.”
Freddy Langer, FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), May 22, 2010
Also please find the review in the attached PDF file.
FAZ, Review of Yutaka Takanashi exhibition, May 22, 2010
Yutaka Takanashi, Photography 1965 – 74
Editors: Roland Angst, Ferdinand Brueggemann, Priska Pasquer
Published by Only Photography, Berlin
116 pages, 41 images, Triplex, hardcover
Text: German, English, Japanese
Yutaka Takanashi belonged to the small group of photographers who launched the magazine Provoke in 1968. The magazine had considerable influence on Japanese photography of that period. He was one of the founding members of this group along with the photographer Takuma Nakahira, the critic and photographer Kôji Taki, and the theorist Takahiko Okada. Daidô Moriyama joined the group during the production of the second issue.
As a member of the small Provoke collective, Takanashi was able to find a new theoretical approach and its visual language. The influence of this group and of the magazine on the photographic scene in Japan was immense. Nobuyoshi Araki described Provoke in retrospect as the trigger of an explosion in Japanese photography. In the following years the Provoke photographers produced major works in terms of photographic history, whereby Yutaka Takanashi defined the high point as well as the end of this era with the publication of his first book, Toshi-e (Towards the City), in 1974.
This two-part book set new standards in terms of design, materials and craftsmanship. In a compartment behind the larger volume, Toshi-e, one finds an earlier series in the smaller format volume, Tôkyô-jin; it seems to have provided the basis for the larger book. The smaller volume is designed to look like a printed notebook on simple paper. This combination is indicative of Takanashi’s non-dogmatic treatment of the different visual styles and approaches of the 1960s. While he shows the real Tôkyô on the verge of becoming a modern urban society in Tôkyô-jin and names the concrete location at which each of the photographs was taken, Toshi-e contains a view of an urban landscape that has no defined location.
Our book, Yutaka Takanashi, Photography 1965–74, presents a representative cross-section of these two pioneering photographic series in 35 full-page illustrations and 6 large format plates. An extensive biography, list of exhibitions and a bibliography round off our newest publication.
The limited edition of 500 will be published in three different versions:
Editions numbered 1 – 30: include a gelatin-silver print of a photograph from Toshi-e (double page 19–20), personally printed and signed by the artist, in the same format as the book. The book along with a separate portfolio containing the print, both bound in linen, are enclosed in a printed linen slipcase.
Editions number 30 – 130 are signed by the artist and will be sold for 128 €.
Editions number 131 – 500 will be sold for 98 € – and are available with one of two linen covers printed with alternative motifs.
Each of the books is stamped with the artist’s personal stamp.
Available at:
www.only-photography.com
www.schaden.com
Our exhibition Shomei Tomatsu received two reviews:
In the Kölnische Rundschau Thomas Linden writes:
Nur ein Spritzer auf dem Bein
Galerie Priska Pasquer zeigt faszinierende Fotografien von Shomei Tomatsu
Symbolisiert die Wolke über dem Meer einen aufsteigenden Gedanken, ein Zeichen der Hoffnung und der Freude? Oder ist sie nichts weiter als ein wenig Wasserdampf, der sich im Sonnenlicht über dem Pazifik gebildet hat? Fotografien von Shomei Tomatsu sind engagiert und geheimnisvoll zugleich. Dieses Foto aus der Serie “The Pencil of the Sun” zählt zu den Ikonen der Fotografiegeschichte.
Shomei Tomatsu: Untitled (Hateruma-jima, Okinawa), from the series “The Pencil of the Sun”, 1971 ©Shomei Tomatsu
Read the rest of this entry »
The Cologne city magazine Stadt Revue has listed our Mika Ninagawa Exhibition (January – March 2009) among the most important shows of 2009:
Mika Ninagawa: Liquid Dreams
Die feuchten Träume der japanische Startfotografin, höchst artifizielle Farborgien und kein bisschen anstößig. Bonbonbunte Unterwassaufnahmen verschmelzen mit Pop.
Michael Krajewski
Jahres-Charts: Das war 2009.
Stadt Revue, 01-10, 2010, p. 67
A Peaceful 2010
Priska Pasquer
Ferdinand Brueggemann
The British Journal of Photography has published a list of top ten books of the decade. Among the top ten is Rinko Kawauchi’s book “Utatane” (Siesta). Rinko Kawauchi had published the book in 2001 and she received for “Utatane” and a second book “Hanabi” (Fireworks) in the following year the Kimura Ihei Award, a leading photography in award in Japan.
The top ten list was compiled by Gerry Badger, who co-authored the two volumes of “The Photobook: A History” with Martin Parr. In the first volume of the photobook anthology Gerry Badger wrote about “Utatane”:
Read the rest of this entry »
The German art magazine “Art” has in its current December issue an article about four German gallerists who are specialized in photography and about collecting photographs. The article starts with a portrait of Priska Pasquer:
LICHTBILDER UND LEIDENSCHAFT
Fotografie gilt auf dem Kunstmarkt immer noch als zweitklassiges Medium – trotz der Erfolge von Demand, Gursky und Co. Doch einige Experten arbeiten leidenschaftlich daran, dieses Image zu verändern. Zu Besuch bei Deutschlands wichtigsten Fotogaleristen.
// Stefan Koldehoff
Die Spezialistin: Priska Pasquer, Köln
Am Anfang stand eigentlich nur der Wunsch, Menschen zu beraten, die sich ernsthaft für Fotografie interessieren: ihnen Sammlungskonzepte vorzuschlagen, Betrachtern die Möglichkeit eröffnen, auch Besitzer zu werden. Kunstgeschichte hatte die Kölner Galeristin Priska Pasquer ursprünglich studiert und währenddessen in der Galerie von Rudolf Kicken gearbeitet.
Read the rest of this entry »
Andrei Molodkin’s latest project is generating extensive media coverage, with newspapers such as The Independent, the Evening Standard, Financial Times and The Times reporting on Molodkin’s intention of continuing to use the notion of crude oil to symbolise the cycle of life and death. The artist has developed a technique for converting human bodies into crude oil that can then be used for sculptures.
Till death do us sculpt: Russian to render human bodies into art materials
Fancy a long-lasting keepsake of your loved one? What better than a statue made from the resin of their mortal remains?
It gives a grim new meaning to the term body art. A leading contemporary Russian artist says he has perfected a technique to boil human corpses into crude oil from which he will create permanent sculptures, and he has already signed up willing volunteers. [...]
The Independent
Read the rest of this entry »
Andrei Molodkin whose work we will show from April 17 at our gallery as well at our booth at the upcoming Art Cologne fair will represent Russia at the forthcoming 53rd Biennale di Venezia.
Mika Ninagawa – with whom we are preparing a solo exhibition at our gallery which will open at January 23, 2009 – has a major exhibition in Tokyo:
Mika Ninagawa: Earthly Flowers, Heavenly Colors
at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery from November 1 to December 28.
Read the rest of this entry »
