The photographs are taken from Gerard's book Transe en Danses and are the fruit of his work with the Turkish choreographer Ziya Azazi who is, in turn, inspired by Whirling Dervishes. This is, perhaps, not a particularly challenging subject for a photographer, but the results are gestural and painterly. Although the photographs are well-presented in the gallery's excellent space, the lighting was over-bright. What is disappointing is their size - how much more exciting they would be if life-size!
The gallery is a beautiful space and it's a pity that it's rarely used. It can be found on Avenue Moulay Yousseff between the fountain at La Fiat and the Royal Palace in the Mellah. The exhibition runs from 10h00 to 17h00 Tuesday to Saturday until 13 March. Entrance is free.
6 comments:
Thanks for letting us know about this exhibition.
Please translate "gestural & painterly". Simple words please for a simple English speaker.
Dear Ms Piggy,
Gesture drawing, as performed in art schools, academies, and colleges, is the practice of drawing a series of poses taken by a model in a short amount of time, often as an exercise with which to begin a life drawing session. The model may hold a pose for a few seconds or several minutes.
More generally, a gesture drawing may be any drawing which emphasizes action or movement.
An oil painting is "painterly" when there are visible "brush strokes", the result of applying paint in a less than completely controlled manner, generally without closely following carefully drawn lines. Works characterized as either "painterly" or "linear" can be produced with any painting media, oils, acrylics, watercolors, gouache, etc.
Painterliness is a translation of the German term malerisch, one of the opposed categories popularized by Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin (1864 - 1945) in order to help focus, enrich and standardize the terms being used by art historians of his time to characterize works of art.
There can't be many countries better than Morocco for photography.
Good explanation! In the case of these particular photographs, our Art Correspondant says that they are similar to paintings, with bold sweeps of colour that look almost like brushstrokes in an oil painting. This captures the movement of the dancer.
Thanks Sandy. Now I know!
I can see why you used the two words as they save a lot of explanation. I doubt many of your readers would have known this.
Our pleasure... and the article was not written by me, but by our Art Correspondent.
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