Land Skipe
at Jaus Gallery
11851 La Grange Ave.
Los Angeles, CA, 90025
Opens Saturday, April 5
April 5 to May 11, 2014
Shane Bradford
Nick Brown
Jane Callister
Peter Lamb
Harriet Murray
Neil Taylor
JAUS is very pleased to present “Land
Images of the opening here:
Straight my eye hath caught new pleasures, Whilst the
From L’Allegro By John Milton
The term
As a species migrating the continents, we survey the land with instruments when we measure and map it, and we survey the landscape through the lens in our eyes. We like to see how the ‘land lies’ in interpersonal situations and we easily inhabit metaphorical landscapes, and ever increasingly virtual ones, and when we refer to a city landscape (cityscape) we may imply a cultural mix of
Considering briefly two of the major traditions that form Western painting and Chinese art, we come across surviving Minoan Greek frescos (1500 BCE) of ‘pure landscapes’ with no figures, and the Illuminated manuscripts of Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry that were key in the development of the Western view of landscape art. In the East, the works from the Shan Shui tradition were never actually intended to represent actual locations. Being influenced by Daoism, these works were intended to evoke a spiritual response to the ‘idea’ of
In Europe landscapes had been utilised for centuries as backdrops for portraits of wealthy landowners, most often idealized and painted in studios far from the actual locations presented. Later the ‘figure’ was employed merely as a device to populate the landscape and elevate the status of ‘pure landscape’ painting at times when portraiture and history painting were still considered higher art forms.
Then with the growth of ‘empire’ and the discoveries of ‘new worlds’ came a new challenge for art and for painting
Photography and land Art have played their role too, and in recent years have again dominated the representation of the land, with epic projects by Gursky, Burtynsky and Salgado.
Leaping from the springboard of this narrative, “Land
Presenting diverse perspectives in their relationships to ‘landscape’, the exhibited works form a conversation that explores whether the landscape has only ever been a mirror for portraying our vanity? The enormity of the earth and its diversity of textures, land formations and environments creates dumb creatures of us all, struck by wonder and the realization that we are so vulnerable, we are left only dreaming of a time when we stood so proudly in the foreground of the canvas, our absence now faded with the limelight being held by concepts and awe. Has there ever been a tradition of accurate documentation? Is this even possible or desirable when the more topographical accuracy a painting has achieved, the lower value it has tended to have as art?
Related Artists:
Harriet Murray
Neil Taylor
Shane Bradford