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MONA KUHN
WORKS
4 MARCH - 17 APRIL 2021
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Edwynn Houk Gallery is pleased to present “Mona Kuhn: Works,” an online exhibition of photographs from throughout the artist’s career, including prints exclusively presented in this viewing room. The exhibition is live from 4 March - 17 April 2021, in celebration of Women’s History Month in March and the publication of a monograph of the same title in April.
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Philipp II, 1997
From the series Vintage
Gelatin silver print
15 x 15 inches, from an edition of 25 + 5 APs
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Mona Kuhn is one of the most respected, and in some circles controversial, contemporary photographers of her time. She has crafted an extraordinary series of nudes — brilliantly reflected through her own enigmatic eye— in large-scale, sensual imagery that stills an air of impressionism.
-Elizabeth Avedon
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Partially inspired by the earthly delights of Hieronymus Bosch gardens and frescos at the ceilings of Sistene Chapel, I intuitively craved nude figures engaged in innocent and unguarded joys. Often present in 14th century artworks, this naturalness and languid peace seems unobtainable today, being left to the magic and fantasy of previous heavenly forms. In the series Poems, I started photographing friends and surroundings from above. Instead of a scaffold, I use a ladder. I compose most images standing on the top of this ladder pointing the camera down, eliminating the horizon line, in an attempt to mirror heaven and earth... The compositions, taken from a bird’s eye view, present a flattened perspective with no horizon lines for orientation, adding a surrealist twist. The resulting effects resemble figure drawings suspended in time by our unconscious, a plunge into what the French poet Louis Aragon called “a wave of dreams.” -MK
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In an effort to abstract away from reality, I experimented with solarizing the black-and-white prints. The effect is reminiscent of Man Ray's elegant renderings of Lee Miller. In this process, the reaction on the skin ranges from metallic, to brilliance, to aged stone. It gives them a statue-like presence. The process reveals imperfections — it brings to the surface their struggles, their strengths, their power, with confidence. -MK
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New Book — "Mona Kuhn: Works"
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Mona Kuhn is one of the most respected contemporary photographers of her time, best known for her large-scale photographs of the human form. Throughout a career spanning more than twenty years, the underlying theme of her work is her reflection on humanity's longing for spiritual connection and solidarity. As she solidified her photographic style, Kuhn created a notable approach to the nude by developing friendships with her subjects, and employing a range of playful visual strategies that use natural light and bucolic settings to evoke a sublime sense of comfort between the human figure and its environment. Her work is natural, restful, and a reinterpretation of the nude in the canon of contemporary art.
Kuhn's distinct aesthetic has propelled her as one of the most collectible contemporary art photographers-her work is in private and public collections worldwide. Mona Kuhn: Works, the artist's first retrospective, features images from throughout her career, accompanied by insightful texts by Rebecca Morse, Simon Baker, Chris Littlewood, and Darius Himes. An interview with Elizabeth Avedon provides insights into Kuhn's creative process and the ways in which she works with her subjects and locations, and achieves the visual signature of her imagery. Published to coincide with a traveling international exhibition, opening at Fotografiska in New York, this book introduces Kuhn's distinct aesthetic to a wide popular audience. It is an essential volume for anyone with an interest in the human form in contemporary art.
CONTRIBUTORS
Photographs by Mona Kuhn
Rebecca Morse is the Curator of the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department at LACMA.
Simon Baker is the Director of the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie (MEP) in Paris. He was previously Curator of Photography and International Art at Tate.
Chris Littlewood is an independent photography curator and writer.
Darius Himes is International Head of the Photographs department at Christie's.
Elizabeth Avedon is a photography book and exhibition designer, independent curator, and writer.
PRE-ORDER A SIGNED COPY.
$60 with US shipping included.
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Portrait of Mona Kuhn, courtesy of Jesse Diamond.
