The Atlas Gallery has launched a new exhibition of work by the much-admired and highly-praised photogram artist Floris Neusüss.
Billed as a follow up to the successful show Shadow Catchers at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2010, Ancient and Modern is showing both old and new work.
This includes works from his lauded Aegineten series, which portrays life-size ancient Greek statues, the monumental images from the Plate collection, and the newly released nudes.
The gallery’s director, Ben Burdett, described Floris as a legend, one of the “true godfathers of contemporary photography”.
“It is particularly exciting for us, in this exhibition, to be offering such a large number of original works from the 1960’s and 1970’s not previously released from Neusüss’ studio,” he said.
This includes two large Nudogramms from 1974, a brilliant coup for the gallery, as original works from this era are rare because many of them have been snapped up by institutions around the world.
“Another highlight will be the newly unveiled work depicting a dinner table laden with the detritus of a long and messy meal, photographically printed onto canvas,” added Mr Burdett.
“It’s an unusual image that really captures the imagination and is sure to be a talking point of the exhibition.”
Neusüss is considered to be one of the true pioneers of photographic art, taking his inspiration from the work of Làszló Moholy-Nagy, a Hungarian painter and photographer who was famously part of the Bauhaus collective.
The great modernist Man Ray is also cited as an inspiration, which is no surprise given that he enjoyed working with photograms (which he dubbed rayographs).
Photograms are interesting in that they don’t actually require the use of a camera. They are created by placing objects onto special light-sensitive paper, which, once exposed to a source of illumination, are imprinted onto the material.
The kind and amount of light used, as well as the proximity of the object – or person – in relation to the paper, influences the final composition, both in terms of colour and clarity.
Floris Neusüss at The Atlas Gallery runs until January 12th 2012.
Cadogan Tate has extensive experience in shipping fine art all over the world.