Ian Gittler

"Champion Spark Plug", 2007

2007

Ian Gittler’s Motor Art series-photographs of century-old engine parts, gears, sparkplugs, and brand tags-offers respite from the digital fetishism, overexposure and one-hundred-forty-character bursts of communication that seem to define our era. Gittler is no luddite, he loves his iPhone. But these images, often obscuring the objects beyond identification, take unsentimental pleasure in elements of weight, ground, volume and permanence that are more closely associated with a bygone heyday of industrialization. These photographs are about a tangible physical experience, about moving parts. Gittler’s expert printing-his ability to see the potential in a frame and employ the techniques necessary to articulate that vision on paper-brings the work to life. There’s wit in the brand iconography and a documentary component, but Gittler resists prescribing interpretations, saying subtext isn’t the point. His use of extremely shallow depth of field, intense contrast and exploded grain is muscular and poetic. But subtext is relevant. Although Robin Rice first approached Ian Gittler about his vector-based art on photo paper, the gallerist challenged him to create a series of photographs with that kind of machismo. As a native New Yorker who was marched through the halls of MOMA as a toddler, Gittler’s inspiration-his idea of macho-has less to do with cowboys and racecar drivers than with Franz Kline brushstrokes and modernist design. For Gittler, macho means the maximum amount of black ink that can lie across a sheet of photo paper. That kind of force. He narrowed his field of view for this series-often to a centimeter or two-in order to achieve a purely visual, visceral response. Gittler titled the work Motor Art in tribute to the 1934 Museum of Modern Art exhibit, Machine Art. Upon its sixtieth anniversary, Phillip Johnson wrote of the show (and of his own essay for its original opening), “The thrust was clear: anti-handicraft, industrial methods alone satisfied our age; Platonic dreams of perfection were the ideal.” Ian Gittler photographs, draws, writes, and makes music. He has created album covers for Willie Nelson, Roy Hargrove...

Ian Gittler’s Motor Art series-photographs of century-old engine parts, gears, sparkplugs, and brand tags-offers respite from the digital fetishism, overexp...

Ian Gittler’s Motor Art series-photographs of century-old engine parts, gears, sparkplugs, and brand tags-offers respite from the digital fetishism, overexposure and one-hundred-forty-character bursts of communication that seem to define our era. Gittler is no luddite, he loves his iPhone. But these images, often obscuring the objects beyond identification, take unsentimental pleasure in elements of weight, ground, volume and permanence that are more closely associated with a bygone heyday of industrialization. These photographs are about a tangible physical experience, about moving parts. Gittler’s expert printing-his ability to see the potential in a frame and employ the techniques necessary to articulate that vision on paper-brings the work to life. There’s wit in the brand iconography and a documentary component, but Gittler resists prescribing interpretations, saying subtext isn’t the point. His use of extremely shallow depth of field, intense contrast and exploded grain is muscular and poetic. But subtext is relevant. Although Robin Rice first approached Ian Gittler about his vector-based art on photo paper, the gallerist challenged him to create a series of photographs with that kind of machismo. As a native New Yorker who was marched through the halls of MOMA as a toddler, Gittler’s inspiration-his idea of macho-has less to do with cowboys and racecar drivers than with Franz Kline brushstrokes and modernist design. For Gittler, macho means the maximum amount of black ink that can lie across a sheet of photo paper. That kind of force. He narrowed his field of view for this series-often to a centimeter or two-in order to achieve a purely visual, visceral response. Gittler titled the work Motor Art in tribute to the 1934 Museum of Modern Art exhibit, Machine Art. Upon its sixtieth anniversary, Phillip Johnson wrote of the show (and of his own essay for its original opening), “The thrust was clear: anti-handicraft, industrial methods alone satisfied our age; Platonic dreams of perfection were the ideal.” Ian Gittler photographs, draws, writes, and makes music. He has created album covers for Willie Nelson, Roy Hargrove...

Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing. Edition of 1. If the exhibition piece is sold or the customer orders a different print size, the photograph is prod...

Robin Rice Gallery from New York and Bridgehampton comes to Beacon, NY. This year, as part of the Beacon Open Studios 10th Anniversary event, Robin Rice Gallery is proud to present a group show of gallery artists curated especially for the new gallery space, Gallery II at 82 Mason Circle at the Lofts at Beacon. The gallery at the Beacon Lofts is located on the 12-acre property of a 19th century textile mill, just along the banks of Fishkill Creek. Drawing on the industrial design of the live/work lofts themselves, the space makes use of reclaimed brick...

Black and white, nature, trees, grainy, film, sky, nature, B&W, black and white photography, tree, Todd Burris, outdoors. Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Inquire within for framing. ...

An Open Edition Print by National Geographic Photographer Keith Ladzinski from his “Cities” collection. Rectangular symmetry of an ascending stair case, ...

An Open Edition Print by National Geographic Photographer Keith Ladzinski from his “Cities” collection. A long exposure of twirled supports along a building in Munich, Germany

Black and White Fine Art Cityscape Photography. Archival pigment ink print, edition of 9. Signed, titled, dated and numbered by artist. Certificate of authenticity included. Printed ...

Black and white fine art landscape photography print. Archival pigment ink print, edition of 9. Signed, titled, dated and numbered by artist. Certificate of authenticity included. Pr...

Black and white fine art long exposure waterscape - landscape photography. Archival pigment ink print as part of a limited edition of 7. All Gerald Berghammer prints are made to orde...

Black and white fine art long exposure waterscape - landscape photography. Archival pigment ink print as part of a limited edition of 9. All Gerald Berghammer prints are made to orde...