By Mona Kuhn
Located in San Francisco, CA
Unique black & white solarized photograph from Mona Kuhn's architecture inspired series Kings Road (2022). In this series Mona Kuhn lyrically reconsiders the realms of time and space within the midcentury architectural elements of the iconic Schindler House in Los Angeles. Built by Austrian architect Rudolph M. Schindler in 1922, the house was both a social and design experiment and an avant-garde hub for intellectuals and artists in the 1920s and ’30s.
The body of works incorporates chromogenic color prints, reflecting vignettes and materials of the building's emotional architecture, juxtaposition with unique solarized gelatin silver prints capturing traces of an ethereal human presence.
Update: We are excited to announce that 12 solarized photographs from Mona Kuhn’s Kings Road series (2021) have been acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum. This in-depth acquisition, facilitated by Manfred Heiting, expands the museum’s holdings of Kuhn’s work, joining Portrait 37 from her Bordeaux Series (2011).
Realm (2022)
Kings Road: A Rudolph Schindler House
30" x 40" / 76cm x 102cm /edition of 12
15" x 20" / 38cm x 56cm / edition of 12
true size solarized gelatin silver print
printed at artist darkroom in Los Angeles (10 days handling time)
original photograph accompanied by signed artist certificate:
artist signature label (8x10")
signed/editioned/dated/titled by the artist + stamped for authenticity
label is placed centered on verso of the mounted print
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About the artist
Acclaimed for her contemporary depictions, Kuhn is considered a leading artist in the world of figurative discourse. 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 minimalist 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.
For the past two decades, the Los-Angeles based artist's works have been shown steadily, revealing an astonishing consistency in technique, of subject and of purpose. In 2001, Kuhn’s photographs were first seen by an influential audience during the exhibition at Charles Cowles Gallery in Chelsea, New York. 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 and she is represented by galleries across the United States, Europe and Asia.
Kuhn was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1969, of German descent. In 1989, Kuhn moved to the US and earned her BA from The Ohio State University, before furthering her studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently an independent scholar at The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Occasionally, Mona teaches at UCLA and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.
Kuhn’s first monograph, Photographs, was debuted by Steidl in 2004; followed by Evidence (2007), Native (2010), Bordeaux Series (2011), Private (2014), and She Disappeared into Complete Silence (2018/19). In addition, Stanley/Barker Editions published Kuhn's Bushes & Succulents in 2018. In 2021, Thames & Hudson published a career retrospective titled Works. Kuhn's most recent publication Kings Road (2022) with Steidl accompanies a multi-dimensional museum traveling exhibition shown in Europe and the US.
Mona Kuhn’s work is in private and public collections worldwide, including The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Hammer Museum, Perez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Kiyosato Museum in Japan. Kuhn's work has been exhibited at The Louvre Museum and Le Bal in Paris; The Whitechapel Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts in London; Musée de l’Elysée in Switzerland; Leopold Museum in Vienna Austria, The Polygon Gallery in Vancouver Canada, Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taiwan and Australian Centre for Photography...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art by Medium: Film
MaterialsPhotographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
