SUZANNE TARASIEVE PARIS / LOFT 19

Galerie Suzanne Tarasieve is delighted to announce its new exhibition FOREVER YOUNG.
Photographer Claude Gassian and the German painters Abetz&Drescher will be showing portraits of rock stars such as Iggy Pop, The Doors, and The Who. Referencing a song recorded by Bob Dylan in 1974, the exhibition title FOREVER YOUNG evokes these personalities whose image and songs have defied the years.
Claude Gassian is offering a selection from four decades of photographs taken at concerts and in personal sessions with the musicians. As a teenager he took his first photos at a gig by The Doors in London. In 1970 he published his first photos in Best magazine, featuring Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa and Santana. Since then he has travelled and attended countless concerts, building up a prestigious portfolio of images that include Patti Smith, The Rolling Stones, Jack White, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, Lou Reed, The Clash, Serge Gainsbourg, Daft Punk, Air and Blondie.
The Berlin duo Abetz&Drescher together produce paintings whose sharp colours evoke the rock aesthetic of the 60s and 70s, summoning iconic figures like Ian Curtis of Joy Division, Syd Barret of Pink Floyd and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. Mixing musical, political and artistic references, their works open up a psychedelic fantasy world.
The music associated with the subjects photographed by Claude Gassian disappears from the image:
«it is captured, stopped, frozen at the moment when – this is what he strives for – the artist is alone with himself.»* In contrast, the paintings convey sounds and suggest a fantasy past. For Abetz&Drescher “Painting can create sound.” This is no doubt a reference to David Bowie's song «Sound & Vision.»
Whereas photography uses black and white or bluish tones, Abetz&Drescher produce highly colourful, visually charged compositions. In both cases, the works have a timeless quality. With Gassian, we are given moments of abandon, of moderation and calm, far from the «rock'n'roll» lifestyle. The «heroes» painted by Abetz&Drescher, too, are often calm, or thoughtful, creating a singular distance in relation to their explosive environment. These portraits show the figures represented as timeless archetypes.
The memory and image of these musicians is always ready to revived in different periods and places.

Claude Gassian's many publications include «Rock Images 1970-1990» (1990) and «»Claude Gassian–Photographies 1970-2001» (2001, La Martinière), showing hundreds of his photos. These have been exhibited in Paris, NYC, Washington and many other cities.
In 2003, Thierry Raspail and Isabelle Bertolotti invited Claude Gassian to feature in the exhibition «Intersections» at the Musée d'Art Contemporain in Lyon. In 2010 the Rencontres d'Arles photography festival exhibited 300 of his images.
Maike Abetz & Oliver Drescher studied at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf and live in Berlin. This German couple have exhibited in Berlin, Zurich, Vienna, New York and Paris. This is their third show at Galerie Suzanne Tarasieve, Paris. In 2011 three of their canvases could be seen in Paris in a show
at the Centre Culturel Suisse, «Echoes».

* Quotation from «Le temps suspendu dans un monde de silence» by Isabelle Bertolotti and Thierry Raspail
Translated by Charles Penwarden

 Suzanne Tarasieve / Loft 19 gallery is pleased to present Summer Camp, Rêveries américaines sur l'adolescence, group show.