A philosopher as well as a poet and photographer, Michals questions our reality through deceptively simple images that stay in our mind as our brains keeps trying to process the message that we are receiving. This message comes back to us at different points in our lives as we are reliving certain key moments that make us see that first reality as a new reality thus reorganizing our thoughts and our beliefs.
Key works from Michals' early work will be exhibited. A portrait of Magritte with Hat gives the flavor to the show as Michals picks up where Magritte left off questioning life and our daily existence.
Michals developed the use of photo sequences, a sort of story telling through images which became his signature. THE HUMAN CONDITION deals with life and death and our existence within the Cosmos. The mirror, a metaphor for reality, is the subject of ALICE'S MIRROR, where a series of realities and mirrors appear to question our straight forward approach to life. Relationships come to play in such works as YOUNG GIRL'S DREAM, SHOPPING WITH MY MOTHER where the artist includes text with the photographs and A LETTER FROM MY FATHER where the photograph totally disappears to become just text.
Duane Michals' work is even more relevant now, at a moment when ideas in art have become more important than their rendition. He has created a school of thought within the next generation of artists and is still a source of inspiration in the 21st Century.
Duane Michals was born in McKeesport, PA in 1932. He had his first one-person museum exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1970 and since has been exhibiting worldwide. His works are included in numerous collections including the Metropolitan Museum, New York, Philadelphia Museum, J.P.Getty Museum, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, and the National Museum in Kyoto, Japan. Michals' archive is housed at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburg.
