8 June – 29 July 2023
Opening Reception: Thursday, 8 June, 6–8 pm
Dove Allouche
Mel Bochner
Mohamed Bourouissa
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Tacita Dean
Jan Dibbets
Seth Price
Thomas Ruff
Peter Freeman, Inc. is pleased to present Misunderstandings, a group exhibition curated by Erik Verhagen, that explores the paradoxical nature of photography, its physical and indexical qualities that link it to reality, and its constructive potential, so amenable to cross-fertilization and manipulation. The title, borrowed from Mel Bochner’s Misunderstandings: A Theory of Photography (1970), highlights the ambiguous nature of photography, its capacity to be informed and also deformed by the historical and sociological tensions inherent to image (re)production.
The exhibiting artists follow three paths: that of Dove Allouche and Jan Dibbets, who use the photographic process to dislocate the stability of their images. Thomas Ruff and Mohamed Bourouissa use the limits of the photographic apparatus as a stylistic device without abandoning the realism of image or narrative. Both Tacita Dean’s photographic print and a cliché-verre plate negative from Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot find a place of “purgatory” between the negative and positive of photography, each revealing an image that obeys its own laws. Seth Price’s Social Space series integrates real and invented imagery to sit at the crossroads of all three categorizations. Far from dispelling misunderstandings, the works brought together in this exhibition emphasize them.
Erik Verhagen is Professor of Contemporary Art History at the Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France. A curator and art critic, Verhagen has published numerous articles, essays, and books in both Europe and the United States. In 2007, he published the first monograph on the photographic work of Jan Dibbets and curated an exhibition dedicated to the artist in 2010 at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. He is a member of the AICA, the reading committee of Critique d'Art, the editorial committee of the Revue de l'art, and the board of the Vernano Foundation for another photography.
For reproduction requests, interviews, and general inquiries, please contact the gallery: +1 212 966 5154 or anna@peterfreemaninc.com.