Canadian contemporary photographer Jeff Wall (b. 1946). uses state-of-the-art photographic and computer technology to make pictures that evoke the composition, scale, and ambition of the grandest history paintings.
This summer the National Gallery of Victoria presents a survey of his work. Entitled Jeff Wall Photographs, the show brings together twenty-six of the artist’s works from the 1970s to the present day.
Dr Isobel Crombie, Coordinating Curator, said Jeff Wall has frequently been called a modern storyteller and his work is shaped by his profound awareness of Western art and literature.
“One strand of his practice is conceptual and involves small-scale, modest and thoughtful observations of ‘things’ that appear to have been photographed in situ. The other strand comprises more complex activities, usually involving people, which are then carefully re-enacted for the camera,” said Dr Crombie.
This exhibition presents the diversity of Jeff Wall’s photographic practice; from large scale photographs back lit by light boxes, some as big as 2 by 3 metres, to smaller prints. A highlight of the exhibition are the major light box transparency works including After 'Invisible Man’ by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue 1999–2000 and the extraordinary, A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) 1993.
National Gallery of Victoria Website
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