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Press Release Checklist Skin/Deep: A Survey of Interior Imaging from X-Ray to MRI December 3, 1998 through January 16, 1999 The gallery will be closed from December 24 through January 5th. Skin/ Deep is the third in a series of historical photography surveys organized by the Julie Saul Gallery in which we look at the treatment of a scientific subject through time, and the attendant technical and aesthetic evolution. Previous surveys were on the topics of botanical and lunar photography. The thesis of each of these exhibitions is that there is always a strong presence of aesthetic choices in "pure" scientific or documentary imagery (partially due to available technology), which only becomes evident in retrospect. The discovery of the X-Ray was announced in a paper published on December 28, 1895 by the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. This miraculous new method which enabled one to see the interior of solid bodies went into immediate use as a diagnostic tool and parlor game. Through time, its positive potential and harmful effects were explored and developed by scientists, doctors and technicians. In the last twenty years many new related technologies have been developed and put into use, including CT (computerized tomography), MRI (magnetic resonance images) PET (positive emission tomograph) and ultrasound. Artists have explored the possibilities of the medium as a form of artistic and metaphorical expression and have used it in response to the wonder, beauty and horror of science and radiation. In fact analytic cubist painting can be seen as an early reflection of the transparent interior world of x-ray images. SKIN/DEEP begins with several examples of X-Ray which were produced before 1900, including an exquisite cyanotype of a pelvic bone, an albumen print of a hand and later examples from the 1920s in the form of silver prints. Other examples of imaging techniques include three cyanotypes made from life-size thinly sliced cross-sections of an entire human body. These haunting representations of bone, organs and tissue merge science and art. Publications spread the knowledge of X-Ray to the scientific community and the general public. The show will include the first English language announcement of Roentgen's discovery featuring the first published X-ray of his wife's hand wearing her wedding ring. Also, the influential 1925 Painting Photography Film by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy in which the constructivist theorist places images by artists alongside scientific and technical imagery. Contemporary works by artists using X-Ray prints include an enormous lithograph by Robert Rauschenberg from 1969, and recent works by Vik Muniz, Andrew Bush, Helmut Newton, Kunie Sugiura, Michael Spano and others. A portrait of Laurie Anderson by Annie Liebovitz in the form of a CT scan, and an MRI self portrait by Australian artist Justine Cooper demonstrate the use of advance imaging techniques by contemporary artists. Image: Dr. Bernard Heon, X-ray of pelvis, Paris, 1897 Skin/Deep: A Survey Of Interior Imaging from X-Ray to MRI December 3, 1998 - January 16, 1999 St. Louis Hospital X-ray of left fibula, Albertine Gouin, 19 years old, 5/9/1903 positive print, mounted on board with annotations 11 x 7 3/4" Dr. Bernard Heon X-ray of pelvis, Paris, 1897 cyanotype, stamped recto 8 3/4 x 11" Eugene Ducretet (attr.) X-ray of a hand, c. 1897 printing out paper 8 3/4 x 6 1/4" Anonymous X-ray of arm with shirt buttons, c. 1910 silver print 4 1/4 x 6 1/4" Central X-ray Lab, Paris Fracture as a result of bullet wound, diagrammed, 1911 positive silver print 10 3/4 x 8 1/2" Dr. Bernard Heon X-ray of feet, Paris, 1897 silver print 8 ý x 6 1/2" Anonymous X-ray of hands, New York, 9/23/1930 positive silver print 9 ý x 7 1/2" Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, ed. Painting Photography Film, 1925 Bauhaus Book #8 Not for sale Anonymous X-ray of skull, c. 1920 silver print 8 x 10" Anonymous X-ray of legs, New York, 1928/30 silver print 13 3/8 x 10 3/8" Anonymous X-Ray of knees, New York, 1928/30 silver print 10 3/8 x 13 3/8" Anonymous (American) (3) contact print cyanotypes of body slices, c. 1950 35 x 13 1/4" each Marie Ange Campos Bordas Vestiges, 1997/98 eight duratrans, light boxes edition of 2 7 3/8 x 5 3/4" Robert Rauschenberg The Rauschenberg Autobiography, panel 1, 1969 signed offset lithograph 68 x 50" Justine Cooper Self Portrait, 1998 Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scans, clear film on perspex 13 1/4 x 11 ý x 12" Michael Spano Double Portrait, 1987 unique black and white photograph 49 x 29 ý Annie Leibovitz Laurie Anderson, MRI, New York, 1991 cibachrome print edition 3/40 Signed, titled, dated and numbered recto in ink 17 x 14 1/2" Howard Sochurek High Speed X-ray (boxer), 1961 silver print 10 1/4 x 13 1/3" Andrew Bush Whiplash, 1998 Iris print edition of 5 Vik Muniz Rabbit, 1994 silver print edition 1/5 8 x 10" Coyote, 1994 silver print edition 1/5 8 x 10" Canadian Goose, 1994 silver print edition 1/5 8 x 10" Helmut Newton High-heel x-ray and Cartier bracelet, Paris, 1994 silver print edition 1/10 20 x 24" Case: Anonymous Wilhelm Roentgen, c. 1895 inventor of the x-ray carte postale 3 3/4 x 2 1/2" The New Marvel in Photography, McLure's Magazine, Vol VI, No. 5, April 1896, pp. 401-415 NFS Anonymous (American) World War I Military Hospital Album Radiology Lab (France) Upper GI performed on the Roumanian/French actress Elvire Popesco on September 1, 1926 (three silver prints with descriptive information on the prints, and with a letter detailing findings of the x-rays.) Campbell & Haulenbeek Medical Photographers, Palisades Park, NJ Case V. Laterial view two days after injury showing unusual backward displacement of atlas on axis. Note abnormal proximity of posterior portions of these bones. silver print 6 1/2 x 4 1/2" Case III. Laterial view at time of accident. Epiphyseal separation. Youngest case on record. Posterior arch of atlas A. Widely separated from axis B. Forward luxation of odontoid C. silver print 6 1/2 x 4 1/2" Kunie Sugiura Mind Meld Outward, 1995 unique polaroid print 40 x 30" Frames are not included unless otherwise noted top For additional information contact the gallery back |
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