Hauser & Wirth opens a focused presentation of over 60 landscape photographs by Don McCullin

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, March 29, 2024


Hauser & Wirth opens a focused presentation of over 60 landscape photographs by Don McCullin
Installation view ‘Don McCullin. The Stillness of Life’ Hauser & Wirth Somerset 2020. Photo: Ken Adlard. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth © Don McCullin.



LONDON.- Hauser & Wirth Somerset is presenting ‘Don McCullin. The Stillness of Life’, a focused presentation of over 60 landscape photographs, mapping Sir Don McCullin CBE’s intimate relationship with the local landscape of Somerset and continued passion for global travel since the 60s. Regarded as one of the most accomplished war photographers of recent times, McCullin has spent the last six decades travelling to remote locations and witnessing harrowing scenes of conflict and destruction. Often referring to the British countryside as his greatest salvation, McCullin demonstrates the full mastery of his medium with stark black and white images resonating with human emotion. This personal survey depicts scenes from across the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia, revealing McCullin’s innermost feelings through powerful compositions of wild heavens, haunting vistas and meditative still lifes.

Having been evacuated to the safety of Somerset during the Blitz, McCullin has had a lifelong connection with the open farmland and hill country of the South West, feeling at peace within the solitude of the expansive landscape. The largest body of work featured in the exhibition explores local areas within walking distance of the photographer’s home, including ‘The River Alham near my house, Somerset’ (2007), ‘The Dew Pond, Somerset’ (1988) and ‘Batcombe Vale’ (1992-93). McCullin is able to evoke dramatic painterly representations of his home county with quiet confidence, shifting between the flooded lowlands of the Somerset levels to woodland streams, nearby monuments and historic hill forts.

These images are being displayed alongside a series of gelatin still life compositions, composed by McCullin in his garden shed and developed in his dark room at home. McCullin often refers to these still lifes as providing a deeper form of escapism than his landscapes, drawing inspiration from the great Flemish and Dutch renaissance masters. It is the emotional durability and intuitive presence of McCullin throughout the entire journey of image making, from capturing to developing, that allows us a rare insight into the redemption he has found from the land and place he calls home.

The exhibition continues to explore McCullin’s documentation across the United Kingdom, featuring pensive rural scenes that include Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland; the River Cam, Cambridgeshire; Rannoch Moor and Glencoe, Scotland. These images are presented in contrast to poignant urban landscapes from McCullin’s early career and visits to Northern England between the 1960s – 70s. McCullin’s honest and empathetic approach towards years of widespread British poverty, social concerns and hardship is most apparent in this body of work, highlighting a genuine commitment to communities often overlooked and the landscape in which they inhabit.

The photography included from the recent ‘Southern Frontiers’ project provides an important connection between the two key strands of McCullin’s work: conflict and landscape, perhaps the most extensive single body of work outside of the Somerset landscapes. Beginning in the early 2000s, he began documenting physical remains of the colossal Roman Empire in North African and Levantine landscapes, including the ancient site of Palmyra. McCullin travelled through Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, returning to Syria recently to document the decimation of these ancient sites by the so-called Islamic State. This driving force to connect and reflect on sacred locations and diverse communities continues further afield across to India and Indonesia, locations where McCullin has documented local rituals, festivals and architecture, enabling western viewers to meditate on the richness of world culture and daily praxis.

The exhibition concludes with four unseen Arctic landscapes captured by McCullin in 2019 during a trip to Svalbard. The journey was the culmination of a lifelong ambition to immerse himself in this ever-changing hostile environment. McCullin welcomed the challenge and experience of total isolation in the frozen lunar arctic landscape, seeking to convey the mysterious and mystical quality of the light in this part of the world. As with most of McCullin’s landscape images, this evocative series presents us simultaneously with overwhelming beauty and reminds us of the fragility of our natural environment.

Undoubtably war and disaster have never left McCullin, however it is through his ceremonial journeys across familial corners of the landscape that he sentences himself to peace and seeks to find stillness in life. In McCullin’s words, ‘My solace lies in recording what remains of the beautiful landscape of Somerset and its metallic dark skies, which give this county an aged and sometimes remote feeling as if the past is struggling against the future. The stillness of silence and sometimes my loneliness provoke my imagination, but, like the surrounding land, I am fighting to release the past in me.’ [2]

‘Don McCullin. The Stillness of Life’ follows McCullin’s major retrospective at Tate Britain in Spring 2019, featuring over 250 photographs that celebrate the scope and achievements of his entire career. This comprehensive survey will travel to Tate Liverpool in June 2020.


1. Mark Holborn quoted in ‘One Man Walking’, The Landscape by Don McCullin, published by Jonathan Cape (2018)

2. Don McCullin quoted in Open Skies by Don McCullin, published by Harmony Books (1989)










Today's News

February 3, 2020

Claremont Rug Company Names 50 Best "High-End" Antique Oriental Rugs Sold in 2019

Exhibition of new sculptural works by Robert Irwin on view at Pace Gallery

Albertina Museum opens an exhibition of works by Wilhelm Leibl

TEFAF Maastricht announces art patronage is the focus of the 2020 Art Market Report

New discoveries in Iraq to be presented alongside British Museum objects for the first time in new exhibition

Andy Gill, radical guitarist with Gang of Four, dies at 64

Roland Gebhardt debuts new Minimalist work at David Richard Gallery, New York

Pace announces representation of Torkwase Dyson

Fight for survival: Photographer Claudia Andujar defends Brazil's Yanomami

Cloning musical heritage in the key of 3D

Peter Serkin, 72, dies; Pianist with pedigree who forged a new path

Hauser & Wirth opens a focused presentation of over 60 landscape photographs by Don McCullin

Convent on a hill to become a luxurious getaway for history buffs

Modernist jewelry, American paintings, and fine silver: Michaan's February Gallery Auction

Daniel Zimmermann's first retrospective opens at Kunsthaus Pasquart

WIELS opens an exhibition of works by Thao Nguyen Phan

Haus der Kunst presents two new art works in experimental format

Kristen Lorello opens a solo exhibition of new works on paper by Takuji Hamanaka

Monique Van Vooren, actress with a diverse résumé, dies at 92

MAGASIN des Horizons opens solo exhibitions of works by Minia Biabiany and Álvaro Barrios

Showbiz apes find peace through painting in Florida retirement

Victoria Miro exhibits Doppelgänger, a video installation by Stan Douglas

Carpenters Workshop Gallery opens an exhibition of works by Martin Laforêt

Conservation students assist museum with research on North Bersted Man for major exhibition

Steidl publishes Anastasia Samoylova's 'FloodZone'

Say Yes: 8 Things to Consider when Hiring a Wedding Photographer




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

sa gaming free credit
Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful