Tuesday, March 3, 2015

DEBORAH TURBEVILLE : Unseen Versailles

GO + SEE
Deborah Turbeville : Unseen Versailles Revisited

January 23 - March 21 2015

STALEY WISE GALLERY
560 Broadway
NewYork 10012
212-966-6223

The Private Apartment of Madame du Barry at Versailles, from “Unseen Versailles”, 1980
Fireplace in the Petit Apartments of Versailles, from “Unseen Versailles”, 1980


Statues, from “Unseen Versailles”, 1980
Unseen Versailles, 1980 (Pile of Chairs)

The Parterre du Midi at Versailles, from “Unseen Versailles”, 1980
51. Deborah Turbeville
Unseen Versailles, 1980 (Painting)


This is a perfect time to spend an hour looking back at the poetic photographic essay by Deborah Turbeville that was commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1981.
The quiet and elegant, Unseen Versailles. All is atmosphere,mystery,silence,longing and discovery it is like wandering in a sad dream surrounded by the saddest music and succumbing to the fatigue of the romantics that would find these images,beautiful.

They are.The artist and gallery based on earlier exhibitions by Deborah Turbeville  have created a edgy look comprising gilded frames  and order compositions facing walls of 
large scale prints attached directly to walls repeating images as if to express a breathing body of work that is as timely today as it was 25 years ago.

It is reassuring that there are still galleries that preserve the history of photographic art giving new generations a chance to see what went before.Since 1839 there has been one  long conversation, a gathering of ideas about our world and our ideas about beauty and time .I saw some of these images in a New York Times Magazine essay in 1981,they still move me now .They must be classic                                          http://www.staleywise.com
all images copyrighted Deborah Turbeville  and Staley -Wise Gallery