Solar Breath (Northern Caryatids), still from video | Michael Snow
2002
14 x 9.5 inches (22.75 x 18.5 inches framed)
Edition of 20, 3 APs
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Solar Breath (Northern Caryatids) is a sixty-two-minute loop, shot from the artist’s summer cabin in rural Newfoundland, that captures how, over the years, “a mysterious wind performance takes place in one of the windows, about an hour before sunset.” The artist explains, “While on one level Solar Breath is merely a fixed-camera documentary recording, it is also the result of years of attention. [It] is sixty-two minutes of the most beautiful, eloquent movements and pliages that the sun, wind, windows, and curtain have yet composed. Chance and choice co-exist.”
“What I saw in these sun and wind events was their potential as art,” Snow has said. “I did not record these ‘events’ to share this modest phenomenon from my daily life with others. No, the rich play of light, surfaces, and durations said to me: this real, un-staged event contains the elements which are essential for a contemplative time-light-motion work of art.”
ABOUT MICHAEL SNOW
Born 1928 in Toronto
Toronto-based artist Michael Snow’s prolific career has encompassed experimental filmmaking, sculpture, painting, music, drawing, and photography. He first exhibited in 1956 and in the 1960s became internationally renowned with his film Wavelength. Based in Toronto, he has exhibited internationally over the past five decades. He has represented Canada at the Venice Biennale and has exhibited at most international major biennials.
Selected solo exhibitions: “Sequences,” La Virreina Image Centre, Barcelona (2015); “Photo-Centric,” Philadelphia Museum of Art (2014); “Objects of Vision,” Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2012–13); “Recent Works,” Vienna Secession (2012); “Solo Snow,” international touring exhibition organized by Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France (2011–2013)
Selected group exhibitions: “Biennale de l’Image Possible,” Les Chiroux, Centre culturel de Liege, Liege, Belgium (2016); “Landscape in Motion: Cinematic Visions of an Uncertain Tomorrow,” Kunsthaus Graz, Austria (2015); “El Hotel Elélectrico: Rooms Available,” MuHKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium (2014); “Michael Snow: The Legacy of Wavelength,” Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013–14); “Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012,” National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Selected public collections: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Ludwig Museum, Cologne; Musée des Beaux Arts, Montreal; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Vancouver Art Gallery
2002
14 x 9.5 inches (22.75 x 18.5 inches framed)
Edition of 20, 3 APs
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Solar Breath (Northern Caryatids) is a sixty-two-minute loop, shot from the artist’s summer cabin in rural Newfoundland, that captures how, over the years, “a mysterious wind performance takes place in one of the windows, about an hour before sunset.” The artist explains, “While on one level Solar Breath is merely a fixed-camera documentary recording, it is also the result of years of attention. [It] is sixty-two minutes of the most beautiful, eloquent movements and pliages that the sun, wind, windows, and curtain have yet composed. Chance and choice co-exist.”
“What I saw in these sun and wind events was their potential as art,” Snow has said. “I did not record these ‘events’ to share this modest phenomenon from my daily life with others. No, the rich play of light, surfaces, and durations said to me: this real, un-staged event contains the elements which are essential for a contemplative time-light-motion work of art.”
ABOUT MICHAEL SNOW
Born 1928 in Toronto
Toronto-based artist Michael Snow’s prolific career has encompassed experimental filmmaking, sculpture, painting, music, drawing, and photography. He first exhibited in 1956 and in the 1960s became internationally renowned with his film Wavelength. Based in Toronto, he has exhibited internationally over the past five decades. He has represented Canada at the Venice Biennale and has exhibited at most international major biennials.
Selected solo exhibitions: “Sequences,” La Virreina Image Centre, Barcelona (2015); “Photo-Centric,” Philadelphia Museum of Art (2014); “Objects of Vision,” Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2012–13); “Recent Works,” Vienna Secession (2012); “Solo Snow,” international touring exhibition organized by Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France (2011–2013)
Selected group exhibitions: “Biennale de l’Image Possible,” Les Chiroux, Centre culturel de Liege, Liege, Belgium (2016); “Landscape in Motion: Cinematic Visions of an Uncertain Tomorrow,” Kunsthaus Graz, Austria (2015); “El Hotel Elélectrico: Rooms Available,” MuHKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium (2014); “Michael Snow: The Legacy of Wavelength,” Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013–14); “Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012,” National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Selected public collections: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Ludwig Museum, Cologne; Musée des Beaux Arts, Montreal; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Vancouver Art Gallery
2002
14 x 9.5 inches (22.75 x 18.5 inches framed)
Edition of 20, 3 APs
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Solar Breath (Northern Caryatids) is a sixty-two-minute loop, shot from the artist’s summer cabin in rural Newfoundland, that captures how, over the years, “a mysterious wind performance takes place in one of the windows, about an hour before sunset.” The artist explains, “While on one level Solar Breath is merely a fixed-camera documentary recording, it is also the result of years of attention. [It] is sixty-two minutes of the most beautiful, eloquent movements and pliages that the sun, wind, windows, and curtain have yet composed. Chance and choice co-exist.”
“What I saw in these sun and wind events was their potential as art,” Snow has said. “I did not record these ‘events’ to share this modest phenomenon from my daily life with others. No, the rich play of light, surfaces, and durations said to me: this real, un-staged event contains the elements which are essential for a contemplative time-light-motion work of art.”
ABOUT MICHAEL SNOW
Born 1928 in Toronto
Toronto-based artist Michael Snow’s prolific career has encompassed experimental filmmaking, sculpture, painting, music, drawing, and photography. He first exhibited in 1956 and in the 1960s became internationally renowned with his film Wavelength. Based in Toronto, he has exhibited internationally over the past five decades. He has represented Canada at the Venice Biennale and has exhibited at most international major biennials.
Selected solo exhibitions: “Sequences,” La Virreina Image Centre, Barcelona (2015); “Photo-Centric,” Philadelphia Museum of Art (2014); “Objects of Vision,” Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2012–13); “Recent Works,” Vienna Secession (2012); “Solo Snow,” international touring exhibition organized by Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France (2011–2013)
Selected group exhibitions: “Biennale de l’Image Possible,” Les Chiroux, Centre culturel de Liege, Liege, Belgium (2016); “Landscape in Motion: Cinematic Visions of an Uncertain Tomorrow,” Kunsthaus Graz, Austria (2015); “El Hotel Elélectrico: Rooms Available,” MuHKA – Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium (2014); “Michael Snow: The Legacy of Wavelength,” Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013–14); “Builders: Canadian Biennial 2012,” National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Selected public collections: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Ludwig Museum, Cologne; Musée des Beaux Arts, Montreal; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Vancouver Art Gallery