Today’s arts news highlight was delivered from Peters Projects of Santa Fe, New Mexico. With the most intriguing exhibit title Reading H2O: The Grammar of Water and photographic content flowing through the stream of alerts, these striking images by noted Dutch photographer Dirk Bakker win Artsphoria’s prize for eye-catching images:
Reading H2O: The Grammar of Water, a series of photographs by Dutch photographer Dirk Bakker, opens on Friday, March 29, from 5 to 7 p.m. With a long and extensive career after leaving his position as director of photography at the Detroit Institute of Arts to live in Mexico, Bakker’s current series of photographs explores our essential need of water. Images capture bodies of this life force, which were taken during a 5- year period on various continents.
“In viewing the crashing waves,” states Bakker, “I saw archetypal featureless events that were yet highly knowable and comprehensible, while never being quite alike. I decided to attempt to find structure in this perceived restlessness and waded into the surf with a camera…. it was like learning a language, the endless number of word choices, being given structure by grammar.”
In 1981, Dirk Bakker was appointed director of photography at the Detroit Institute of Arts and in 2010 moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. In the museum field, he is especially known for his fieldwork with the art and architecture of ancient civilizations and Native American art and culture.
Some notable books in these areas include The Art of the Taino People (1993) published by the museum Petit Palais in Paris; The Sculpture of Indonesia (1992) by the National Gallery in Washington DC; and The Art of West Mexico by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1998, Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision (1985) for Abrams Publishers in New York and Discovering Stained Glass in Detroit(1987) for Wayne State University Press.
In 2009, Dirk Bakker reopened his photography studio called Artbook, specializing in publications on art and architecture.
Report Observations at the Exhibit, and Post Your Reactions
Peters Projects is located at 1011 Paseo De Peralta in Santa Fe, New Mexico. If you see this exhibit in person, report your firsthand observations on Artsphoria International Magazine.
Call to other viewers: How do you react to these photographs? Post your comments now!