166 N. LA BREA AVENUE
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90036
323-933-5557 info@couturiergallery.com
May 4, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
EXHIBITION:
CRAIG COWAN
DIVINE PROPORTION
DATES:
June 9 – July 14, 2012
OPENING:
Opening Reception, Saturday June 9, 6–9pm
GALLERY HOURS:
Tuesday - Saturday, 11am - 5pm
Couturier Gallery is pleased to present a retrospective exhibition of nude images by
the late Los Angeles based photographer Craig Cowan (1947-1993). Divine Proportion
focuses on Cowan’s distinctive approach to the male figure genre and his inclusion of the
ancient rules of composition known as the Golden Section or Divine Proportion. The
selection of over 30 silver and Platimum/Palladium prints feature classical figure studies, as
well as overlay and hand-drawn hybrids combining his photography with the Golden
Section. Craig Cowan - Divine Proportion opening reception will be Saturday, June 9
from 6-9pm, and the exhibition will continue through July 14, 2012.
Los Angeles based Cowan was a self-taught perfectionist in the darkroom who
achieved recognition for his masterful printmaking. His gorgeously toned silver prints
have an exceptional surface quality inviting one to touch. Whether photographing desert
landscapes, architectural icons, or male nudes, Cowan possessed the extraordinary ability
to manipulate the print and sculpt the image using chemicals and light producing
sumptuous tonal abstractions.
In an effort to distinguish himself from other photograhers who were exploring the
male nude genre of the 80’s and early 90’s, Cowan developed a style distinctly his own.
His investigations led him to the use of the golden section which had been used
throughout history, first in early Egyptian architecture, and later in painting and sculpture
where it was used to describe the proportions of the ideal human figure, most notably in
the illustrations of Leonardo da Vinci for the book Divina Proportione by Luca Pacioli
(published in 1509).
Craig Cowan describes his approach to the use of the golden section in the
introduction of his 1990 publication Notes On The Golden Section :
"My use of the golden section in photographic proportion studies is aesthetic rather than
scientific. The golden section is a symbol through which I can unite several different concepts into
one expressive image. My interest in the human figure in my work has always been to present it
photographically so that it suggests a theoretical absolute. I associate this with the ideas of
Plato, especially as expressed in the “Symposium.” The particular and the general are fused; the
figure, being a photograph, is always a specific person, and yet through lighting, tonal placement
and composition it is made abstract. The use of the golden section in the figure studies adds
another level of concrete expression to this yearning for an absolute. The result is a fused image
which combines a complex of distinct but interrelated ideas: Greek philosophy, classical interest
in the human figure, modern photography, mathematics, a concept of balance and proportion
and a human yearning for some kind of absolute.”
Cowan uses the golden section as an overlay superimposed on the figure and
incorporated as part of the print itself. The effect is to highlight the proportional
relationship between sections of the body while introducing the geometrical lines as
rational abstract elements contrasted with the more elusive figure.
His most ambitious and final project, the "Apollonian" images, combine the
photographic nude image with the golden section hand-drawn, using graphite, on the
print paper itself, surrounding the figure rather than superimposed on it. Each image in
the series of twenty five represents a different Greek myth, the nude in the photograph
representing one character of the myth, the golden section the other figure(s).
Craig Cowan’s work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in public
and private collections around the world, including Fototeca de Cuba, La Habana Vieja,
Cuba; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House, Los Angeles, CA; and Los Angeles Museum
of Art, Los Angeles, CA.
For further information and/or press photos, please contact the gallery:
info@couturiergallery.com or telephone 323-933-5557.
166 N LA BREA AVENUE
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90036 • 323-933-5557
info@couturiergallery.com