Lawrence Markey Inc.

Charlotte Dumas Tiger Tiger/Reverie

at Lawrence Markey
San Antonio, TX

April 25–May 30, 2008

Lawrence Markey is pleased to announce our upcoming exhibition of recent photographs by Charlotte Dumas. This will be the first exhibition of Dumas’ work at Lawrence Markey, and her first in the United States.

Charlotte Dumas was born in Vlaardingen, Netherlands in 1977 and studied art at Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam from 1996 to 2000. She completed a residency program at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam from 2001 to 2002.

The exhibition will feature Charlotte Dumas' most recent photographs from the series Tiger Tiger ,and works from the 2005 series entitled Reverie. Reverie consists of images of wolves, found in Norway, Sweden and the United States. The images in Tiger Tiger are from tiger sanctuaries and preserves in Texas.

In Dumas’ words, from a conversation with Aoife Rosenmeyer, published in Art World Magazine (issue 2, December 2007):

In the end they are animal portraits, although my interest starts with how we look at animals and how we look at images of animals. We project character traits. I’m trying to create work one can relate to or recognize something of oneself in, whether you are aware of it or not. It can happen regarding a human portrait as well, but an animal portrait is more accessible for a variety of emotions. Because you’re not looking at your own species the portraits are less intimidating: you can reflect on it without being confronted with somebody else’s story.

When I started, I photographed police dogs, as I was interested in aggression on demand-searching for images of violence and aggression without the human story behind it. Through the police dogs I was able to begin working with police horses, subjects I have great deference towards. I am interested in animals that are in the service of mankind, both literally and symbolically. In Rome I photographed the Carabinieri a Cavallo, a huge mounted army not used for wars any more but still taken very seriously. It was like trying to capture a relationship from the past.

Every time I start with a new subject I have an incubatory time that I have to pass through, because I am usually so overwhelmed by the beauty of the subject and the impact it has on me. I have to escape the phase of being in love with the subject in order to be able to decide whether an image is good or not. As an artist it is my aim to move the viewer and I’m not interested in doing this with shock or controversy. My way of working is very simple, but the way one relates to it can be very complex.

Hanneke de Man writes (De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art, January, 2007):

Animals are a well-liked subject in our visual culture, but in the context of visual art they are hardly considered a serious theme. In defiance of this supposed triviality, Charlotte Dumas has made police dogs, horses and now wolves the subject of her photography since graduating from the Rietveld Academie in 2000. Not a trace of irony or sentimentality can be found in her work. Characteristic of her approach is the unbiased concern with which she portrays her subject.

The sizes of the photographs are substantial, yet not so large that intimacy is lost. The animals are placed centrally and monumentally on the image surface, in poses that precede or follow the action. We see a full focus on their stance, on the softness and the nuances of color in their coats or the relief of veins on glistening skin. These are quiet images, which seem to elude the momentary quality of the ‘here and now’ due to their setting and incidence light. Dumas takes her inspiration more from painting than from photography. Delacroix and Géricault are the shining examples for her. She is fascinated by the way in which these artists have portrayed horses – heroically and tragically, as passionate and dedicated creatures. Like these painters, Dumas is primarily interested in the eloquence of the image.

With her portraits of wolves, Dumas has taken an entirely different approach. While the series involving horses derives its strength and rhythm from the consistent manner in which they have been photographed, the wolf is always portrayed in a different way: looking up, sleeping, hunting, watchful or relaxed. But here, too, the incidence of light is essential to the sometimes almost brittle atmosphere. Just as with the horse, the thematic appeal that the wolf has for Charlotte Dumas relates to man’s complex relationship with this animal. The symbolic and emotional connotations that both the horse and the wolf have in our culture make up the context within which her portraits reveal themselves. Whereas the horse, as man’s trusty companion in war and peace, symbolizes the close bond between man and nature, the wolf represents the other end of the spectrum. 

A fully illustrated catalogue, Tiger Tiger/Reverie (24 pages with 16 color illustrations), will accompany the exhibition, and is available for sale from the gallery. The catalogue was published along with Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam, where there is a concurrent exhibition of work entitlled Tiger Tiger.

Further information on the work of Charlotte Dumas is available at www.charlottedumas.nl/