Oceanscape October 17 2009
Artist
Renate Aller
(b. 1960)
Date2009
MediumArchival pigment print
Dimensions28 x 40 in.
32 x 44 in. framed
32 x 44 in. framed
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of the Artist
Object number2011.26
DescriptionGerman-born Renate Aller is an artist whose work defies categorization. A unique blend of spontaneity and manipulation, her photographic seascapes of the Long Island shoreline possess the serenity of a Luminist painting, while capturing the romantic spirit of a work by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851).For the past decade, the artist has been working on the series “Oceanscapes-One View-Ten Years” in which she continuously documents the ocean and sea shore from the same vantage point. Each image in her decade-long series harmoniously blends into the next and creates a subtle narrative of physical and spiritual transformation. In these vast, atmospheric photographs where ocean meets sky, land is sublimated. These humbling works force the viewer to confront his or her own limitations and acknowledge the magnificent power of nature.
Though Aller’s work is starkly minimal, no two photographs are alike. Water and sky fluctuate in a rhythm of activity and stasis. In “Oceanscape, October 17, 2009”, a blanket of thin cloud hovers over a thin strip of ocean and band of blue sky. Whereas in a conventional landscape the land or ocean recedes into the distance, here the clouds dissipate into a blue unknown, while the sea remains a static, horizontal band of color. In this effortless blend of natural elements, foreground and background are mysteriously depicted, leaving the viewer to question where the sky ends and the ocean begins.
On View
Not on viewCollections
