Smile Please! Pencil drawing by Nigel A. JAMESAn Exhibition to Behold
Westlicht is playing host to an all time great, and if you enjoy photography, and you are within easy reach of Vienna, then this sensational exhibition is for you!
It is impressions that one takes home from exhibitions, and trying to put them into words of understanding is well nigh impossible; the only thing that I can say about what I had the pleasure of seeing is wow!
Divided into four separate sections, this retrospective covers the entirety of the essential works by List.
His nudes are neither bad reproductions of uncovered flesh for the sake of art, nor are they naked bad taste. They are, instead, a celebration of life at its youthful best in all its vitality!
Applying vitality to still life and abstract composition is not easy; but, somehow, it is the simplicity of List’s composures that are so arresting and magnetic. There is no pretence in the beauty of even the most common of household utensils when set against the right, if not unexpected background. List understood the harmony of objects as well as the nature of people. And there is no better word than magnetic for his portraits!
Capturing someone on film is easy. Taking a very good portrait, however, is one of the most difficult photographic challenges that exists! List certainly had no problem. There must have existed a tremendous empathy between the photographer and his subjects. His portraits all reveal a very strong dimension of positive feeling that’s seldom – even amongst the best. And his real life pictures, or street photography as it is referred to nowadays, was, too, streets ahead of the rest of the pack.
His pictures of every life shows all from the very small to the very great. His photographs are a fascinating historical document of his time. There are the clothes, the backgrounds, and all of the other small but important things that made up the way of life at the time. Without knowing it, everyone in all of his pictures have become part of an extremely valuable contribution to the recording of the picture of man!
I cannot speak too highly of this exhibition. It is on until the middle of April at Westlicht in the seventh district of Vienna. The address is Westbahnstrasse 40. 1070 Wien. http://www.westlicht.com/
Westlicht is playing host to an all time great, and if you enjoy photography, and you are within easy reach of Vienna, then this sensational exhibition is for you!
It is impressions that one takes home from exhibitions, and trying to put them into words of understanding is well nigh impossible; the only thing that I can say about what I had the pleasure of seeing is wow!
Divided into four separate sections, this retrospective covers the entirety of the essential works by List.
His nudes are neither bad reproductions of uncovered flesh for the sake of art, nor are they naked bad taste. They are, instead, a celebration of life at its youthful best in all its vitality!
Applying vitality to still life and abstract composition is not easy; but, somehow, it is the simplicity of List’s composures that are so arresting and magnetic. There is no pretence in the beauty of even the most common of household utensils when set against the right, if not unexpected background. List understood the harmony of objects as well as the nature of people. And there is no better word than magnetic for his portraits!
Capturing someone on film is easy. Taking a very good portrait, however, is one of the most difficult photographic challenges that exists! List certainly had no problem. There must have existed a tremendous empathy between the photographer and his subjects. His portraits all reveal a very strong dimension of positive feeling that’s seldom – even amongst the best. And his real life pictures, or street photography as it is referred to nowadays, was, too, streets ahead of the rest of the pack.
His pictures of every life shows all from the very small to the very great. His photographs are a fascinating historical document of his time. There are the clothes, the backgrounds, and all of the other small but important things that made up the way of life at the time. Without knowing it, everyone in all of his pictures have become part of an extremely valuable contribution to the recording of the picture of man!
I cannot speak too highly of this exhibition. It is on until the middle of April at Westlicht in the seventh district of Vienna. The address is Westbahnstrasse 40. 1070 Wien. http://www.westlicht.com/
Language Assistance
The word behold, as in the title of this piece, means to closely observe or to pay serious attention to.
The word nigh is an old fashioned word and is no longer in (such) common use. It means nearly.
I hope you have enjoyed this very brief review, and if you wish to send me a mail, my address is, njmailboy@gmail.com
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