Arthur Tress Figurative Photography
American, b. 1940
Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 24, 1940, Arthur Tress began his first camera work as a teenager in the surreal neighborhood of Coney Island where he spent hours exploring the decaying amusement parks. Later, during five years of world travel, mostly in Asia and Africa, he developed an interest in ethnographical photography that eventually led him to his first professional assignment as a U.S. government photographer recording the endangered folk cultures of Appalachia.
Seeing the destructive results of corporate resource extraction, Tress began to use his camera to raise environmental awareness about the economic and human costs of pollution. Focusing on New York City, he began to photograph the neglected fringes of the urban waterfront with a straight documentary approach. This gradually evolved into a more personal mode of “magic realism” combining improvised elements of actual life with stage fantasy that became his hallmark style of directorial fabrication. In the late 1960s Tress was inspired to do a series based upon children’s dreams that combined his interests in ritual ceremony, Jungian archetypes, and social allegory. Later bodies of work dealing with the hidden dramas of adult relationships and the reenactments of male homosexual desire evolved from this primarily theatrical approach.
Beginning in the early 1980s, Tress began shooting in color, creating room-sized painted sculptural installations out of found medical equipment in an abandoned hospital on New York’s Welfare Island. This led to a smaller scale exploration of narrative still life within a children’s toy theater and a portable nineteenth-century aquarium.
Around 2002, Tress returned to gelatin silver, exploring more formalist themes in the style of mid- century modernism, often combining a spontaneous shooting style with a constructivist’s sense of architectural composition and abstract shape. In addition to images of California skateboard parks, his recent work includes the round images of the series Planets and the diamond-shaped images of Pointers. Selected Arthur Tress Books and Publications
Open Space in the Inner City: Ecology and the Urban Environment. New York: New York State Council on the Arts, 1971. Arthur Tress: The Dream Collector. Text by John Minahan. Richmond: Westover, 1972, New York: Avon, 1974. Shadow. A Novel in Photographs. New York: Avon, 1975 Theater of the Mind. Text by Duane Michaels, Michel Tournier and A.D. Coleman. Dobbs Ferry: Morgan and Morgan, 1976. Reves. Text by Michel Tournier. Brussels: Complexe, 1979. Talisman. Edited by Marco Livingstone. Oxford: Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1986. The Teapot Opera. Photographs and text by Arthur Tress. Goro International, 1986, Abbeville, 1988. Male of the Species: Four Decades of Photography by Arthur Tress. Text by Michale Tournier. Fotofactory, 1999. Fish Tank Sonata. Bulfinch, 2000. Arthur Tress: Fantastic Voyage: Photographs 1956-2000. Bulfinch, 2001. Memories. Photographs by Arthur Tress, Poems by Guillaume Apollinaire. 21st,to
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Artist: Arthur Tress
Man with Trousers
By Arthur Tress
Located in London, GB
Silver gelatin print, 19cm x 19cm (print size), (50cm x 40cm in mount), unframed, but contained within archive quality mount.
Tress is one of the most renowned and innovative photographers of his generation. Citing his influences as Hokusai, Frank Lloyd Wright, Picasso, El Lissitzky, Duane Michaels...
Category
1980s Surrealist Arthur Tress Figurative Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Bowling Fantasy
By Arthur Tress
Located in London, GB
Silver gelatin print, studio stamp (verso), 19cm x 19cm (print size), (50cm x 40cm in mount), unframed, but contained within archive quality mount.
Tress is one of the most renowned and innovative photographers of his generation. Citing his influences as Hokusai, Frank Lloyd Wright, Picasso, El Lissitzky, Duane Michaels...
Category
1970s Surrealist Arthur Tress Figurative Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
Nude on the Stairs
By Arthur Tress
Located in London, GB
Silver gelatin print, studio stamp (verso), 19cm x 19cm (print size), (50cm x 40cm in mount), unframed, but contained within archive quality mount.
Tress is one of the most renowned and innovative photographers of his generation. Citing his influences as Hokusai, Frank Lloyd Wright, Picasso, El Lissitzky, Duane Michaels...
Category
1970s Surrealist Arthur Tress Figurative Photography
Materials
Silver Gelatin
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Resume:
Born 1958, Glen Cove, New York
Lives in Schodack Landing, NY
EDUCATION
1998 Penland School of Crafts, Penland, North Carolina
1988 The Maine Photographic Workshops, Rockport, Maine
1976-79 Syracuse University, New York
1974-76 Wooster School Community Art Center, Danbury, Connecticut
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This silver gelatin photograph shows a long-necked toy giraffe perched on a windowsill gazing down at the prominent penis of the male nude standing at the window. The vintage print i...
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A vintage silver gelatin photograph by Arthur Tress shows a nude male gazing at a life size Superman figure. The fantasy suggests that the genitalia of the human is appropriate for the Man Of Steel. This image # 14 of just 50, is titled, dated and signed by Arthur Tress from whom it was purchased.
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Caution: Man at Work (Nude construction worker clad only in boots climbs ladder)
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A vintage silver gelatin photograph shows a nude construction worker in boots from below as he ascends a ladder at a California work site. This image was created in 1995 in an edit...
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Arthur Tress figurative photography for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Arthur Tress figurative photography available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Arthur Tress in silver gelatin print and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Surrealist style. Not every interior allows for large Arthur Tress figurative photography, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Brian Ziff, and Alina Karo. Arthur Tress figurative photography prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,210 and tops out at $1,529, while the average work can sell for $1,529.