World renowned Canadian
photographer Edward Burtynsky, famous for his surreal landscapes and
provocative series chronicling the world’s dependence on oil, has donated 34
works to the Vancouver Art Gallery.
The gallery now owns 44
photographs by the Ontario-born artist, and will feature his work at an
upcoming exhibition from March 1 to May 26.
“We would like to express our
gratitude to Edward Burtynsky for this significant body of work,” said VAG
director Kathleen Bartels, in a statement on Wednesday, adding that his gift
will help build the gallery’s photo-based collection of works by leading
contemporary artists.
Burtynsky’s work captures
surreal landscapes that society depends on, such as marble quarries, oil
production centres and refineries and ship breaking sites.
His film directorial debut
Watermark won the 2014 Best Canadian Documentary Film prize, awarded by the
Toronto Film Critics Association.
The record price at
auction for Burtynsky’s work is $38,250 for a piece called Shipbreaking #10,
Chittagong, Bangladesh, according to the Heffel art index. The median price of
the 87 works of his that have sold at auction is $9,600.
According to the gallery,
the new addition of 34 works comprises three decades of Burtynsky’s
photography, representing eight different series from 1983 to 2013. The
Breaking Ground series, for instance, features images of cars, structures and
roads in B.C., and documents the C.N. Rail track, according to the art gallery,
while the Quarries series was shot in India, Italy and China.
Another of his series,
Oil, Fields, Mines and Tailings documents his fascination with the extraction
of resources. The most recent series Water has led Burtynsky to travel around
the world to understand the use and misuse of this ubiquitous resource,
including looking at human-inflicted disasters such as the oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
Burtynsky was one of the
inaugural recipients of the TED Prize in 2005, and was awarded the Order of
Canada in 2006.
Source: Vancouver
sun. 18 February 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment