Erwin Olaf's Photo Interpretations of Classic Plays at Hasted Kraeutler Gallery

Written by Adrian Topsfield Thursday, 26 May 2011 22:28

New York.- The Hasted Kraeutler Gallery is pleased to present "De La Mar" a new series of photographs by Erwin Olaf based on eight classic plays and starring famous Dutch actors. The project was commissioned by the DeLaMar VandenEnde Foundation for the new De La Mar theater in Amsterdam. Erwin Olaf presents his interpretations of Angels in America, A Streetcar Named Desire, Amadeus, Cyrano, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Sunshine Boys, Waiting for Godot and Three Sisters. "Erwin Olaf: De La Mar" is on view at Hasted Kraeutler's West 24th Street gallery until July 1st.

Erwin Olaf lives and works in Amsterdam. Mixing photojournalism with studio photography, Olaf emerged in the international art scene in 1988 when his series "Chessmen" was awarded the first prize in the Young European Photographer competition. This award was followed by an exhibition at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany. Since then Olaf has continued to explore issues of gender, sensuality, humor, despair and grace in each successive series. Printing his early work in documentary style black-and-white, he first gradually introduced color and then digital manipulation, with returns to classicism in some of his most iconic bodies of work, "Rain", "Hope", and "Grief". The artist exhibited three psychologically complex bodies of work in an exhibition at Hasted Kraeutler in 2010, "Dusk/Dawn" and "Hotel". The work explored historical issues in photography alongside his personal experiences. Olaf has also received acclaim for his video works which are usually exhibited with his photographs. Aperture published his monograph, Erwin Olaf, in 2009.

Hasted Kraeutler is a contemporary art gallery that specializes in photography and is committed to the representation of emerging and established artists from around the world. The gallery works in an advisory capacity with new and experienced collectors, museums and institutions. Founded in 2005 in a third floor space on West 20th Street, the gallery is now located in a large ground floor space at 537 West 24th Street, in the heart of New York’s Chelsea art district.

The gallery represents Jeff Bark, Michael Benson, Marc Dennis, Julian Faulhaber, Andreas Gefeller, Jean-Paul Goude, Nathan Harger, Erwin Olaf, Martin Schoeller, Michael Thompson, Paolo Ventura and Albert Watson. These artists constitute the range of contemporary artistic practice, working with the genres of narrative, landscape, still life, portraiture, conceptualism and abstraction.


The artists have been widely exhibited in the United States and abroad, have had their work published, and have received much acclaim and coverage in The New York Times, New Yorker, New York Magazine, New York Observer, Artforum, Wall Street Journal, Photo District News, Photograph, Art Newspaper, National Geographic, Daily News, GQ, Fortune Magazine, American Photo and Time among others. They have been featured in the BBC series The Genius of Photography and Thirteen’s Sunday Arts program on television. Hasted Kraeutler’s artists have been recognized for their outstanding achievements by the National Endowment for the Arts, Prix Pictet, Ford Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, the TED Prize, Deutsche Borse, Royal Photographic Society, Lucies, W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, and the ICP Infinity Award among others.

The gallery consistently arranges and facilitates museum exhibitions for their artists and places the work in such esteemed institutions as the Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Margulies Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Gallery of Canada and The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Founding partner Sarah Hasted has been a curator and art dealer for over fifteen years. She has also been involved in New York’s professional, institutional and academic photography communities, teaching at Parsons The New School for Design since 2003. In September 2009, Joseph Kraeutler joined Sarah Hasted as partner, bringing over ten years of experience successfully managing and promoting artists and their sales through esteemed New York galleries and secondary market sales through an internationally known auction house. His extensive knowledge of contemporary and vintage photography has expanded Hasted Kraeutler’s outreach and programming to feature rare and important works and specially curated exhibitions. The gallery maintains the highest standards of connoisseurship, scholarship and ethical practices. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.hastedkraeutler.com

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