For Immediate Release

GIANFRANCO GORGONI
Icons: Photographs of the Art world
November 8 - December 12, 2007

Jim Kempner Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of Gianfranco Gorgoni’s large-scale color and black & white portraits of icons of the art world, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Serra, Jean Michel Basquiat, Bruce Nauman, Jimi Hendrix and Truman Capote. Several of the images are featured in his book, Beyond the Canvas: Artists of the Seventies and Eighties, Photographs by Gianfranco Gorgoni, published by Rizzoli in 1985. There will be an opening reception for the artist on Thursday evening, November 8 from 6-8 pm.

Gianfranco Gorgoni came to the United States from Italy in 1968 with the idea of producing a photographic essay on New York artists and returning home in a few months. Instead, he became so involved with his project that he remained in New York, pursuing his photojournalism assignments and photographing artists whenever he had the opportunity. A chance encounter with Robert Rauschenberg in 1969 led to an introduction to Leo Castelli, his stable of artists, and to his first of four solo exhibitions at the Leo Castelli gallery from 1972 until 1996.

Gorgoni’s photography career is interwoven with the history of Pop Art, Neo-Expressionism, and Minimalism in addition to performance, conceptual, and land art. His work is singularly significant because of his presence at and documentation of numerous projects and installations, including Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and Michael Heizer’s giant desert “drawings.” His work is celebrated for his specialized depictions of the artist within his environment, actively engaged in the creative process and for his sensitive portrayals of his subjects.

Gianfranco Gorgoni’s photographs have been reproduced in Artforum, Art in America, Time, Newsweek, Esquire and the New York Times Magazine. Solo exhibitions of his work include those at Ace Gallery, New York, Akira Ikeda Gallery,Tokyo, the Venice Biennale (1993) and the San Francisco Museum of Art. His work is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, the J. Paul Getty Museum of Art, Los Angeles, and numerous other public and private collections.