Floris Neusüss: Ancient and Modern

With a new show opening this week in London’s Atlas Gallery, Ancient and Modern, the artist has been creating photogram work since the 1960s, a technique that creates images by placing objects (or in Neusüss’ work, the human figure) onto light-sensitive paper or film, revealing the shape of the object when exposed to light.

Having exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in Autumn 2010, this follow up show will feature old and new work, including the Aegineten photogram series, which depict life-size ancient Greek statues from the Glyptothek Museum in Munich, and the  Tellerbilder or ‘Plate’ series from the 1970s.

Atlas Gallery director Ben Burdett says, ‘Floris is legendary. He is one of the true godfathers of contemporary photography. It is particularly exciting for us, in this exhibition, to be offering such a large number of original works from the 1960s and 1970s not previously released from Neusüss’s studio.’

He adds, ‘Another highlight will be the newly unveiled work depicting a dinner table laden with the detritus of a long and messy meal, photographically printed onto canvas. It’s an unusual image that really captures the imagination and is sure to be a talking point of the exhibition.’

Inspired by Bauhaus artists like Làszló Moholy-Nagy, who pioneered the Constructivist camera-less photography  style, Neusüss started out as a printmaker, before falling in love with the photogram technique, which he also teaches.

The works are beautifully spectral and disquieting, showing the power of the medium to capture a dream-like feel, often using only black and white.

Floris Neusüss: Ancient and Modern runs from 8 November – 12  January 2013 at Atlas Gallery, 49 Dorset Street, London W1U