BARBARA BLONDEAU  Permutations

  Untitled, Panorama (solarized nude), 1968/1972   2 1/4 x 36 1/4" silver print

Barbara Blondeau: Permutations is a long-awaited sequel to our first Blondeau show in 1984, among the very first exhibitions held at Laurence Miller Gallery. Our first exhibition centered on her time/motion panoramic prints, which she made from 1968-1972. This was a series stimulated by an accident, when her camera’s shutter froze in the open position, and the resulting roll of exposed film produced one continuous negative. Barbara immediately began to explore the possiblities from this accident, and produced an important group of elongated prints in which the entire roll of film was treated as a single image. Encouraged by her close friend Ray Metzker, both graduates from the Institute of Design in Chicago, Barbara experimented with many techniques and approaches until her death from cancer in 1974.

Permutations will feature four series. Her 1968-72 time/motion panoramas; her gritty 1970 street scenes printed as large positive images on orthochromatic film, presented over silver and gold backgrounds; her experimental nude studies; and her "Black Border Series" from 1974 in which her awareness of her imminent death is inescapable. We are grateful to the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, which houses her archive, for making these duplicate prints available to the gallery and to our clients.