Corcoran Gallery of Art Premieres Major Retrospective

WASHINGTON, April 1 /PRNewswire/ -- This spring, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC will premiere the first ever retrospective to examine all aspects of artist Eadweard Muybridge's pioneering photography. Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change brings together more than 300 objects created between 1857 and 1893, including Muybridge's only surviving Zoopraxiscope—an apparatus he designed in 1879 to project motion pictures—exhibited in the United States for the first time at the Corcoran.

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Organized by the Corcoran and curated by Philip Brookman, chief curator and head of research, Helios: Eadweard Muybridge will be on view from April 10 to July 18, 2010.

Best known for his groundbreaking studies of animals and humans in motion, 19th-century English photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904) was also an innovative and successful landscape and survey photographer, documentary artist, inventor and war correspondent.

Born in Kingston upon Thames, England in 1830, Muybridge immigrated to the United States around 1851. He worked as a bookseller in New York and San Francisco, and returned to London in 1860 following a serious injury. Muybridge learned photography in Britain and returned to the United States by 1867 where began his career as a photographer in San Francisco. He gained recognition through his innovative landscape photographs, which showed the grandeur and expansiveness of the American West. Between 1867 and 1871, these were published under the pseudonym "Helios."

Muybridge spent most of his career in San Francisco and Philadelphia during a time of rapid industrial and technological growth. In the 1870s, he developed new ways to stop motion with his camera. Muybridge's legendary sequential photographs of running horses helped to change how people saw the world. His projected animations inspired the early development of cinema, and his revolutionary techniques produced timeless images that have profoundly influenced generations of photographers, filmmakers and visual artists.

"The enormous impact of Muybridge's photographs can be found throughout modern art, from paintings and sculptures by Thomas Eakins, Edgar Degas, Umberto Boccioni, Marcel Duchamp, and Francis Bacon, to the 1999 blockbuster film The Matrix and the music video for U2's hit song Lemon," Brookman said.

Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change includes numerous vintage photographs, albums, stereographs, lantern slides, glass negatives and positives, patent models, Zoopraxiscope discs, proof prints, notes, books, and other ephemera. The exhibition is brought together from 38 different collections.

The exhibition will feature a number of Muybridge's photographs of Yosemite Valley, including dramatic waterfalls and mountain views from 1867 and 1872, images of Alaska, the Pacific coast, an 1869 survey of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads in California, Nevada and Utah, the Modoc War, Panama and Guatemala, and urban panoramas of San Francisco.

Visitors will also see examples from Muybridge's experimental series of sequential stop-motion photographs such as Attitudes of Animals in Motion, 1881, and his later masterpiece Animal Locomotion, 1887.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The show will be structured in a series of thematic sections that present the chronology of Muybridge's career, the evolution of his unique sensibility, the foundations of his experimental approach to photography, and his connections to other people and events that helped guide his work. The sections include: Introduction: The Art of Eadweard Muybridge (1857–1887), The Infinite Landscape: Yosemite Valley and the Western Frontier (1867–1869), From California to the End of the Earth: San Francisco, Alaska, the Railroads, and the Pacific Coast (1868–1872), The Geology of Time: Yosemite and the High Sierra (1872), Stopping Time: California at the Crossroads of Perception (1872–1878), War, Murder, and the Production of Coffee: the Modoc War and the Development of Central America (1873–1875), Urban Panorama (1877–1880), The Horse in Motion (1877–1881), Motion Pictures: the Zoopraxiscope (1879–1893), Animal Locomotion (1883–1893). (See Helios Eadweard Muybridge Exploration PR.)

Following its debut at the Corcoran, Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change will travel to Tate Britain in London from September 8 through January 16, 2011, and to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from February 26 through June 7, 2011.

Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change is made possible through the generous support of American Express and the Trellis Fund. Additional support was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and Deane and Paul Shatz. The accompanying catalogue was made possible, in part, by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Furthermore: a program of the J.M. Kaplan Fund.

ABOUT THE CATALOGUE

A catalogue will accompany the exhibition, Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change, and will include essays by Philip Brookman, Marta Braun, Corey Keller, Rebecca Solnit, and an introduction by Andy Grundberg. Published by Steidl, the book will be available for purchase in the Corcoran Shop or at www.corcoran.org/shop. $80

PRESS PREVIEW

Media are invited to a press preview for Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change on Wednesday, April 7 at 10 a.m. at the Corcoran, 500 17th St. N.W., Washington, DC. RSVP to [email protected] by April 5.

EXHIBITION PROGRAMMING

An extensive a series of cultural and educational programs inspired by Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change will begin in March. Programs include family workshops, lectures, and art classes for aspiring artists; in conjunction with the exhibition, the programs will seeks to highlight the artist's innovations and his key role in pioneering the creative transformation of late 19th-century American culture.

Visitors to the exhibition will be immersed in an Inspiration Gallery at its conclusion. An electronic timeline will be presented to emphasize the remarkable environment of the 19th century. The Inspiration Gallery will provide opportunities to explore how Muybridge's wide influence is manifested in American art today. His role as a catalyst in a technological and aesthetic revolution has continued to transform our representation of time and space. The impact Muybridge's influence is apparent in photographs, books, video, and installation art by selected artists, whose works will be on view in the Inspiration Gallery.

For more information about exhibition-related public programs and events, visit www.corcoran.org. (Also see Helios Public Programs Press Release.)

VISITOR INFORMATION

The Corcoran’s hours of operation are as follows: Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; closed Monday and Tuesday. Admission to Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors (62+) and students (with valid ID), children 12 and under, military (with valid ID) and Members enter for free.

MEMBERSHIP

Corcoran Gallery of Art membership offers free year-round admission, special access to the Corcoran’s renowned permanent collection, traveling exhibitions, and discounts at the Shop and Cafe as well as free or reduced admission to lectures, films, and concerts. Membership supports exceptional art exhibitions, educational programs and significant outreach efforts to underserved youth in the local community.

Member Preview Day for Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change is Thursday, April 8, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Curators and Public Education Staff will lead exclusive Member tours and Members also receive an additional 10% off purchases at the Gift Shop and an additional 10% off at the Corcoran Cafe for a total 20% Member discount. For more information, visit www.corcoran.org/membership.

ABOUT THE CORCORAN

The Corcoran Gallery of Art, a privately funded institution, was founded in 1869 as Washington’s first and largest nonfederal museum of art. It is known internationally for its distinguished collection of historical and modern American art as well as contemporary art, photography, European painting, sculpture and the decorative arts. Founded in 1890, the Corcoran College of Art + Design is Washington’s only four-year college of art and design offering BFA degrees in Digital Media Design, Fine Art, Graphic Design and Photography; a five-year Bachelor of Fine Arts/ Master of Arts in Teaching (BFA/MAT); and a two-year Master of Arts (MA) in Interior Design or History of Decorative Arts. The College’s Continuing Education program offers part-time credit and non-credit classes for children and adults and draws more than 2,500 participants each year.

For more information about the Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design, visit www.corcoran.org.

SOURCE Corcoran Gallery of Art