William Claxton

WILLIAM CLAXTON
Abstractions

November 8 through December 8, 2007
Reception for the Artist: Thursday, November 8, 7-9 p.m.

Vanity Fair magazine has stated that William Claxton is "arguably the greatest photographer of the jazz world". His exceptional images of the young Chet Baker are iconic as are his photographs of actor Steve McQueen. Two very successful award-winning books about these two American idols have been published.

His fashion work of the avant-garde designer Rudi Gernreich, created with his wife model Peggy Moffitt, recorded this famous designer's work-- especially the now famous image of the topless swimsuit. His stunning images of jazz musicians were culminated with a giant volume published by Taschen in 2005 (JazzLife) and have put Claxton in a unique place in the art of photojournalism in America. His creations have earned him a unique place in the history of American photography which resulted in a special exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC in 2007. Claxton photographs are highly sought by collectors the world over.

Claxton's new abstract work is totally different. It is a collection of unusually colorful abstract designs. The artist has taken the ordinary typography torn from magazines, books and other sources and has deconstructed - wrinkled up - and reshaped, sculptured them into odd, unusual and ultimately beautiful shapes. He then photographs them in a bright intensive light. The very large compositions result in abstractions of astonishing shapes, color and patterns. These abstractions are created - not "found" and are totally original.