PRESS RELEASE

EXHIBITIONS:

October 24 - December 1, 2001

The photographs currently on exhibit at Stephen Wirtz Gallery represent three different periods of the confluence of art and science.

"Art and science encounter each other when they seek exactitude."
-Etienne-Jules Marey

Unknown to most Americans, the German polytechnic institutes in the 19th Century combined physics, chemistry and the like with other disciplines including photography and aesthetics. It is from these sources that the early works (c.1900) in this exhibit derive.

"Beauty is the manifestation of the secret laws of nature which, were it not for them being revealed through beauty, would have remained unknown forever."
-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

HAROLD EDGERTON(1903-1990) was a particularly prominent figure at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for decades. MIT was, and continues to be, a center for learning that incorporates the arts into its scientific program. Edgerton's high-speed photography opened new worlds into "seeing the unseen." As a scientist, however, his finished prints were not only interesting and illuminating, but were also beautifully composed and sensitively edited. On exhibit in the main gallery are many rare vintage prints from c.1935, in addition to numerous familiar images.

"…Wagner embraces the anarchic antihierarchy of digital technology and indulges in the beauty of the world beyond vision."
-Cornelia Butler

Finally, CATHERINE WAGNER is opening a one-person exhibition with an accompanying book, Cross Sections, at the San Jose Museum of Art in November 2001.

For additional information, please contact Kira Lyons (415)433-6879.