Trying to Learn to Say the Same Thing
This was the "first NY art show". It wasn't really called "trying to learn..." It didn't have a title, but that was what I'd been wanting to call it if I could've gotten up the guts, so I'll pretend it is the title.
Furthermore, some of these images are ringers, they actually weren't actually in this show. Not only that, but I haven't found all the ones from the show to scan. Or I only have pretty nasty scans. There were about a dozen pictures in the original, perhaps?
Anyhow, it was a big shock to put up a photo show. I remember picking up the photographs from the framers, and they all fit in the center of the back seat of the car. Then spending a few days arranging them on the walls...
I found a draft of the press release in an old email:
PRESS RELEASE
Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to announce that the next exhibition will be photographs by Dan Torop. This will be Torop’s first solo exhibition in New York.
In this exhibition Torop will show small format photographs ranging in size from 6 x 9 inches to 15 x 23 inches. The exhibition will be comprised of pictures of ducks and swans, landscapes and a suspicious pair of twins.
Using a somewhat philosophical basis for his work, Torop sees photographs as artifacts of a performance that will be interesting and meaningful. He views the photograph as a valuable document of the performance of actions leading up to the photograph. Thus a photograph is assumed to be a valuable object. By using the subject matter of birds and landscapes, Torop’s photographs revolve around nostalgia for times when an absence of purity is most strongly felt. (Dan, by purity and nostalgia do you mean or are you talking about the idea of a true and meaningful artistic impulse or a romantic ideal of the artist?????) There is an attempt at artistic sincerity that is one step away from utter corniness. The photographs aim to talk about a life-experience with seriousness but are not afraid of becoming seen as being pop sugar coating.
Marianne Boesky Gallery is located at 51 Greene Street, between Broome and Grand Streets. For further information or photographs, please call 212-941-9888.