Exhibition dates: 14th March – 9th May, 2015
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
94 Greene Street, New York
1975
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches
© Bevan Davies
This stunning suite of large format photographs emanates from an esteemed lineage: the early morning light of Atget’s photographs of Old Paris during that cities urban renewal; the frontality of Walker Evans and his photographs of Southern churches (with both artist’s attention to the storefront facade); and the formal qualities of the New Topographic movement and the gridded topos of Bernd and Hilla Becher.
While Eugène Atget photographed the vanishing environs of Old Paris, Davies captures the urban decay of New York City, a city that was undergoing serious urban renewal in the 1970s.
“The redevelopment of large sections of New York City and New York State by Robert Moses between the 1930s and the 1970s was a notable and prominent example of urban redevelopment. Moses directed the construction of new bridges, highways, housing projects, and public parks. Moses was a controversial figure, both for his single-minded zeal and for its impact on New York City… The Rondout neighbourhood in Kingston, New York (on the Hudson River) was essentially destroyed by a federally funded urban renewal program in the 1960s, with more than 400 old buildings demolished, most of them historic brick structures built in the 19th century. Similarly ill-conceived urban renewal programs gutted the historic centres of other towns and cities across America in the 1950s and 1960s.” (Anon. “Urban Renewal,” on the Wikipedia website)
In Davies’ project (and essential to his task), is the revealing of detail in these undervalued buildings. An ethereal light radiates, almost pulsates from these night time buildings – all rendered in beautifully ferrotyped prints that display a surplus of detail.
The previsualisation in these photographs is excellent. Notice how Davies pushes and pulls the viewer forward and backward in the image plane by using the device of the footpath to frame his compositions. In an image such as 94 Greene Street, New York (1975, above) – one of my favourite in this posting – the artist frames the image to stop at the edge of the pavement, allowing enough room so that the eye is led into the image. In other images, such as Broadway, New York (1976, below) or 425 Broome Street, New York (1976, below), Davies crops right up to the base of the building, forcing the viewer to acknowledge the geometric, cellular structure of the facade and nothing else. In yet other images, such as Column, Mercer Street, New York (1975, below) or 155 West Broadway, New York (1975, below) the artist pulls back from the building, allowing the pavement to anchor the building’s displacement while emphasising the columns grounding within the scene.
These really are magnificent photographs that bring the silence of the city to the fore front of our consciousness. Without the presence of human beings, the buildings take on a majesty that is usually usurped, overlooked or just plain passed by during the humdrum nature of everyday life.
Dr Marcus Bunyan
.
Many thankx to the Joseph Bellows Gallery for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
652 Broadway, New York
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches
© Bevan Davies
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
Broadway, New York
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches
© Bevan Davies
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
425 Broome Street, New York
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches
© Bevan Davies
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
Walker Street., New York
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches
© Bevan Davies
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
Hudson Street, New York
1975
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches
© Bevan Davies
Joseph Bellows Gallery is pleased to announce its upcoming solo exhibition, Bevan Davies New York. The exhibition opens on March 14th and will continue through May 9, 2015. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, March 14th, from 6-8 pm. New York will present Davies’ luminous and highly detailed large-format black and white architectural views from the mid 1970’s, along with a selection of his earlier street portraiture from the preceding decade, in the atrium gallery.
Bevan Davies studied photography with Bruce Davidson, at the University of Chicago in early 1960’s and benefitted greatly through mentoring from Diane Arbus later in that decade. After working the street in both daylight and evening hours, photographing people at odds with society, with a hand camera, Davies changed his working methodology to describing the physical environs of the street: the building facades, alleys and streets with a tripod mounted view camera.
This change in subject and approach resulted in Davies most celebrated work. Created in 1975/76 Bevan Davies’ architectural photographs situated themselves wholly within the dictum laid forth by William Jenkins, as “New Topographics”. In fact, Davies writes of his approach as, “an effort being made to let the camera almost see by itself.” This notion was carried further by the late photographer, Lewis Baltz, who in 1976, referred to Davies’ photographs as, “rigorously contemporary, while acknowledging a use of the camera which dates from the inception of the medium.” The New York facades, taken in the early morning hours and devoid of people, describe spaces defined by light and shadow. They depict a specific time and place, as seen by the window dressings and signage, as well as portray a formal grace among the building’s details that are included within Davies’ camera frame. New York is the first comprehensive exhibition of Davies’ photographs in over two decades.
Davies photographs can be found in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Center for Creative Photography, Art Institute of Chicago, Nelson-Atkins Museum, Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, George Eastman House, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Harry Ransom Center, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the International Center of Photography.
In 2014, Nazraeli Press released Los Angeles, 1976, a monograph on Davies’ photographs from that region and era. The photographs depict the residential architecture and neighbourhoods through nuanced arrangement and clarity. A forthcoming volume on Davies’ New York photographs is in prepublication.
Press release from the Joseph Bellows Gallery
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
144 Wooster Street, New York
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches
© Bevan Davies
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
View from 475 Broadway, New York
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches
© Bevan Davies
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
Bond Street, Facing North, New York
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches
© Bevan Davies
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
Franklin and West Broadway, New York
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
16 x 20 inches
© Bevan Davies
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
426 West Broadway, New York
1975
Vintage gelatin silver print
20 x 16 inches
© Bevan Davies
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
Column, Mercer Street, New York
1975
Vintage gelatin silver print
20 x 16 inches
© Bevan Davies
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
11 Mercer Street, New York
1976
Vintage gelatin silver print
20 x 16 inches
© Bevan Davies
Bevan Davies (American, b. 1941)
155 West Broadway, New York
1975
Vintage gelatin silver print
20 x 16 inches
© Bevan Davies
Joseph Bellows Gallery
7661 Girrard Avenue
La Jolla, California
Phone: 858 456 5620
Opening hours:
Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 5pm and by appointment
Art Blart _ art and cultural memory archive 
You must be logged in to post a comment.