Waswo X. Waswo Signed Sepia Toned Silver Gelatin Photograph “A Flight of Birds Jaisalmer”

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Waswo X. Waswo Signed Sepia Toned Silver Gelatin Photograph “A Flight of Birds Jaisalmer”
Original sepia toned silver gelatin photograph … Read more Waswo X. Waswo Signed Sepia Toned Silver Gelatin Photograph “A Flight of Birds Jaisalmer”
Original sepia toned silver gelatin photograph “A Flight of Birds Jaisalmer” signed and titled by Waswo X. Waswo on the reverse with W.X.W embossed in the margin on the front.
Also titled on the loose backing board in the artists hand and both contained within a clear protective sleeve. This celebrated, soft-sepia silver gelatin fine art photograph was created by Waswo X. Waswo in 2001.
Measurements are 13.25”W x 9.7”H.

This particular image-which depicts a flock of birds swirling over the serene, historic Jaisalmer temple floating in a reflective pool of water-is highly regarded for its formal, romantic composition. It stands as an exceptional example of the artist's early work in chemical-process, sepia-toned photography before he shifted his primary focus to hand-colored portraits. This photograph was on the front cover of his first major book “India Poems: The Photographs (Gallerie Publishers, 2006). The book features 75 poems by the photographer and poet. The book was in part a challenge to politically correct notions of the western artist's role in responding to Asia, and his work has been critiqued in the light of cultural theories that stem from Edward Said and his book Orientalism. Waswo's photographs of Indian landscapes and people were showcased in the traveling exhibition titled 'India Poems' organized with the support of Alliance Française, Kashi Art Gallery, and Cymroza Art Gallery. The exhibition traveled to Cochin, Bangalore, Bombay, Udaipur and Goa, and also was exhibited in Colombo and Kandy in Sri Lanka.

"India Poems" culminated in a show at The Haggerty Museum of Art titled “India Poems: The Photographs of Milwaukee Artist Waswo X Waswo” in Waswo's hometown of Milwaukee in 2007. Waswo's India Poems exhibitions and book were widely written about in India. With images that recall the nineteenth-century Pictorialist tradition, Waswo's photographs capture what the artist describes as the timeless quality of life in rural India. Waswo is aware of the aesthetic and political minefield he walks through as a contemporary Western artist creating images that "seek to keep India unique, alluring and ageless:" His photographs are, subsequently, extraordinarily thoughtful and genuine.

Waswo was born in Wisconsin in 1953. He studied at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, The Milwaukee Centre for Photography, and Studio Marangoni, The Centre for Contemporary Photography, in Florence, Italy. Waswo has lived and traveled in India for more than twenty years and has collaborated with various local artists, including Rajesh Soni. He has also produced a series of autobiographical miniature paintings with artist R. Vijay. He has learned from journalism that photography, which can excite, bring tears, offend and outrage, is a two-edged sword disguised as a lance of truth.
Waswo’s solo exhibitions include editions of ‘India Poems’, Alliance Francaise in Kandy, Colombo, Bangalore, Goa, 2003, Kashi Art Cafe, Cochin, 2003 and 2007, West Zone Cultural Centre, Udaipur, and Cymroza Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2004 and 2006, and Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, 2007; ‘Photographs’, Leenaers Verloop, Amsterdam, 2007; and editions of ‘A Studio in Rajasthan’, Coromandel Art Gallery, Pondicherry, Galleria Joyce and Co., Genoa, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi and Kashi Art Gallery, Cochin, 2008-09. His works have featured in various group shows, including ‘Gallery Artists’, Barefoot Gallery, Colombo, 2004; ‘The Calendar Art Project’, Apparao Gallery, New Delhi, 2009; and ‘Marvelous Reality’, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 2009. His books, India Poems: The Photographs, Gallerie Publishers, 2006; and Men of Rajasthan, Serindia Contemporary, 2011, are available worldwide. Waswo lives and works in Udaipur.

Provenance: I purchased this original photograph from the personal collection of Dr. Curtis L. Carter. Dr. Curtis Carter co-curated an exhibition of Waswo X. Waswo photography at the Haggerty Museum of Art, Milwaukee in 2007. An article by Curtis Carter appeared in The International Yearbook of Aesthetics titled "Invented Worlds: India Through the Camera Lens of Waswo X. Waswo".

Curtis L. Carter is a professor of Philosophy at Marquette University, focusing on aesthetics. He received a PhD from the University of Boston. His greatest accomplishment at Marquette was the creation of the Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art. Carter was the founding director from 1984-2007. Haggerty Museum attempts to build a greater appreciation for the arts in the Milwaukee and Marquette Community. He also teaches several classes on the philosophy of art.
Carter also serves as an associate professor at Marquette University's Les Aspin Center in Washington DC. At the Aspin Center, Carter teaches a class titled "Arts in a Democratic Society", through which he attempts to integrate the importance of the arts in a Democratic society. The class consists of tours of art museums, historical landmarks and buildings in the DC area, visits to performances at the Kennedy Center. Carter currently serves as vice president of the International Association for Aesthetics. Carter has recently expanded his teaching to China. See less