WILLIAM EGGLESTON – 2¼
2019-04-08The works in the 2 ¼ series are notable within Eggleston’s oeuvre for their distinct format. He shot the photographs using a two-and-one-quarter-inch medium-format camera, resulting in images that exist between the registers of portraiture and landscape, dissolving the boundaries between the two. The individuals, cars, parking lots, and local stores and businesses that the artist depicts in the series speak to the uniformity of postwar material culture while revealing the distinct character and idiosyncrasies of the people and places that populate the American landscape. Through Eggleston’s lens, a rusted-over Cadillac dealer’s sign becomes both a potent emblem of industrial decline and a lushly toned formalist colourscape of rich blues and bronzes. Vermeer-like, Eggleston exhibits a sensitivity to the powerful yet diffuse light that permeates these spaces. Several images from the series capture cars parked in litter-strewn lots, immersed within this special saturated glow.
Opposite – William Eggleston, Untitled, c. 1977, Courtesy Eggleston Artistic Trust and David Zwirner, © Eggleston Artistic Trust
Exhibition runs April 12th through to June 1st, 2018
David Zwirner
24 Grafton Street
London
W1S 4EZ
