2023-04-10 01:52:23
The Gallery Miranda presents an exhibition of vintage prints from Dave Heath (1931-2016, American-Canadian), which primarily explored themes of loneliness and alienation in contemporary society. Entitled Alone, Together, this is the first exhibition in a European gallery of this artist celebrated in his country but recently known in France, thanks in particular to the exhibition “Dave Heath: Dialogues with Loneliness” organized at Le Bal art center in Paris in September 2018.
Influenced by street photographers W. Eugene Smith, whose New York workshops he followed, as well as Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan from Chicago, Heath roams the streets of the major American cities where he lives – Philadelphia, Chicago and New York . He seeks to visually capture the growing fractures and tensions of American society at the time – growing post-war but on the verge of tipping over in the years of protest marked by civil rights and anti-war movements. In Vietnam.
Observing the faces of absent-minded passers-by, Heath photographs strangers of all generations and social classes: train passengers, strollers, couples and groups of young people, all lost in thought. Heath says he wants to “transmit, instead of despair, a kind of acceptance of the tragic dimension of life”. He also finds moments of joy and tenderness, these luminous images pierce all of his work like rays of sunshine.
Self-taught, Dave Heath earns his living first as a photographer’s assistant for commercial studios, then as a film printer (of great talent) in Chicago and New York where he settled from 1957 until the mid-1960s. Heath struggled to find a publisher for his book A Dialogue with Solitude which was conceived in 1961 but only published in 1965. Republished in 2000 with a preface by Robert Frank, A Dialogue with Solitude makes an impression, thanks to the great sensitivity with which Dave Heath captures the inner world of strangers, their moods and their relationships with others, all alone in the crowd.
The selection of prints at Galerie Miranda focuses on Heath’s portraits of one or two people, tight and drawn portraits, as was his custom, in contrasting black and white. All the prints on display were printed by Heath himself between 1959 and 1966.
Exhibition organized in friendly collaboration with the galleries Stephen Bulger Gallery (Toronto) and Howard Greenberg Gallery (New York).
Dave Heath : seuls, ensemble
from March 2 to May 6, 2023
Gallery Miranda
21 rue du Chateau d’Eau
75010 Paris – France
[email protected]
1682668439
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