Don Freeman

American

Double Calla Lilies, 1999

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Medium: Photographs, Digital print on Hahnemuhle paper
Size: 34 x 23 in. (86.4 x 58.4 cm.)

3,000–4,000 USD

JHB Gallery

New York

About this Artwork

Movement: Contemporary Art
Provenance: Don Freeman is an American photographer whose luminous, painterly works of still life and architecture, and his dream-like explorations into hand-toned, monochromatic images, have found their way into the collections of Christian Lacroix, Princess Caroline of Monaco, Paloma Picasso and four books.
He is internationally renowned for an exquisite rendering of interiors bathed in natural light, appearing regularly in the UK’s The World of Interiors, Elle Décor and Architectural Digest.
His latest book is Artists' Handmade Houses (Abrams 2011), a body of images that search lovingly through the extraordinary self-built domains of great American artists and craftsmen, from Russell Wright and George Nakashima to Wharton Esherick and Henry Varnum Poor.
My Familiar Dream is a book of early works first exhibited in New York at White Columns in 1985. It currently resides in the permanent collections of the Getty and Victorian Albert Museum in London.
The Hotel Book: Great Escapes North America, published by Taschen, takes Don’s captivating command of light through 40 destinations in the US and Canada, from airstream trailers to luxury resorts, capturing the essence of place, travel and escape.
And in 2008, Rizzoli published Ted Muehling: A Portrait by Don Freeman, the story of a twenty-year friendship and vibrant collaboration between photographer and legendary jewelry designer. The book is a dazzling collection images drawn from Muehling’s designs, travels, inspirations and commissions for Steuben, Nymphenburg and Lobmeyr.
Don’s reverence for light was formed early in life, growing up mesmerized by the stark natural beauties of Bainbridge Island in the Pacific Northwest. He studied art in Arizona, explored the art scenes of Los Angeles and San Francisco, and moved to New York in 1983. He soon began filling magazines like Harper's Bazaar and Vogue with exquisite work for a pantheon of artists and designers. Among them, Mark Jacobs, Geoffrey Beene, Alber Elbaz, Joan Vass and Kim Hastreiter.
The next step of his journey as artist took him to Paris in 1991, where he was soon immersed in the universe of fashion and couture. He photographed for Vogue, Hermes, Vivienne Westwood, Christian Louboutin, Andre Putnam, Jacques Grange, Christian Liaigre, and furniture designers Paul Mathieu and Michael Ray, and exhibited his fine art at Pierre Passebon Gallery.
He is currently based in New York, pursuing his vision for interiors and still life, and exploring personal artistic passions such as the filmed version of his book on artists’ houses, to be called Art House.

Description

The Plantbook Series
Photographs by Don Freeman

Don Freeman will be exhibiting his solarized photographs of herbarium specimens for the first time at the Chris Lehrecke store in Hudson, New York, opening Saturday October 15th. Freeman’s new works turn the innocent Victorian art form more commonly know as plant pressing into something sinister, mysterious, strange, and modern.

The source material for the artist’s new works came from two collections of plant pressings found at flea markets around New York. The first set, dated May of 1902, is by Jennie Letts, a student at Oneonta Normal School. The second set, by MB Hoffman of Slatington, PA, from May of 1901. As the artist states: "I am normally not a collector of herbarium specimens but I do love a twist of nature".

Freeman photographed the original pages of these folios using black and white film. He then applied a solarization process to the primary prints in the darkroom. Solarization is the process of exposing an unfixed photographic image to light in the darkroom, which partially reverses the image’s tones - Man Ray was a big proponent of this technique. After the solarized image is fixed, it is then scanned and turned into a digital file. These digital files were used to create the exhibition prints on Hahnemuhle watercolor paper.

Freeman’s visual vocabulary is often informed by the melancholic. Mysterious imagery of dying roses, fading chrysanthemums and deceased birds are just a few of his reoccurring leitmotifs. Freeman has cited author Joris-Karl Huysmans' seminal “decadent” novel À Rebours, or as it is better know in its English translation: Against Nature, also as a source of inspiration, in particular, the book’s infamous black dinner party.

"I wanted to take that innocent idea of studying and preserving nature to a darker place, certainly. Maybe it’s an apocalyptic warning, where in the future what's left of nature is a carbon print of it. Like ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’, sweet Victorian girls disappear into space, or nothingness, leaving just their plant books behind."

JHB Gallery

About this Artwork

Description

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