Ben Gazzara, Los Angeles, California, March 21, 1998, 1998
Selenium-toned silver gelatin photograph in welded aluminum frame, 19 1/2" x 22 3/4" x 1 1/4"
numbered, signed, and dated on reverse
ed. of 15
sold out

In a rare black-and-white portrait, artist Sharon Lockhart creates a quiet yet intensely provocative character study. The subject is actor Ben Gazzara, a well-known colleague of director John Cassavettes, whose films have greatly influenced Lockhart. This photograph is unusual within the artist's impressive body of work because of its subtle scale, which matches nearly one-to-one the size of the subject's head. The image was captured using an 8" x10" camera, which offers intriguing and at times unsettling detail (including the reflection of the camera in the eyes of the subject). Like much of Lockhart's work, this photograph invites quiet contemplation and rewards sustained viewing. The carefully calibrated size of the image, combined with the rich use of black and white, make this photograph unique -- an intimate exposure of the subject in repose as well as of the artist's passion for her mentor, the great filmmaker Cassavettes.

Sharon Lockhart's work has been seen in numerous prestigious group exhibitions and film festivals such as "Hall of Mirrors: Art & Film Since 1945" at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the 1997 Whitney Biennial, Sundance film festivals, and "New Directors/New Films" at the New York Museum of Modern Art. In 2000 she will have a solo exhibition at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. She is represented by Blum & Poe of Santa Monica.