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From
July 7 through August 19, approximately fifteen 20 x 24-inch collotypes
by Eadweard Muybridge, printed at the University
of
Pennsylvania Press
in 1887, will be on exhibit. These collotypes will focus solely on
animal studies that he made at that time.
As popular as Eadweard Muybridge motion studies are in the contemporary
artistic dialogue, there can be no doubt that the most famous of his
works are the series of studies that he made, at the behest of Leland
Stanford, of the true motion of a horse in full gallop.
After he figured out how to further approximate accurate
renderings of motion in animals, Muybridge began obsessively trying to
record how all animals, including humans, moved. From this obsession,
there emerged a curious and fascinating series of all types of animals
in a myriad of movements. Horses—galloping,
jumping, trotting—will be the featured animal, and will be shown in
full stride with all fours off the ground. For the politician in us,
there will be a donkey kicking and an elephant lumbering. A Bactrian camel with hump in full sway will be shown, as well as
a baboon slowly inching up a pole, his handler in slight view though
Muybridge tried to mask him out.
All in all, the show is a reminder of why so many artists remain
enthralled by Muybridge’s studies and continue to be inspired and
influenced by him. Major
holdings of these collotypes are in the collection of the Philadelphia
Museum of Art, as well as the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
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