Ophelia #1 - Limited Edition of 1 Photograph

Berlin dancer Imogen Burell as Ophelia: The photograph shows Ophelia singing as she swims in a river just before she drowns. The scene is described in Act IV, Scene VII of Hamlet in a speech by Queen Gertrude. Out of her mind with grief, Ophelia has made garlands of wildflowers. She climbs a willow tree that stands over a brook to let some of the branches hang down, and a branch breaks beneath her. She lies in the water singing songs as if unaware of her danger ("unable to see her own distress"). Her clothes, which trap air, have enabled her to remain temporarily afloat ("Her clothes spread wide, / And, And mermaid-like a while they bore her up."). But eventually, "Her clothes, heavy with her drink, / Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay" down "to muddy death." Available in the following size: 1 copy- Collector Edition: 47,5" x 31,7" 80,5 x 120,1 cm + 1 Artist Proofs The artwork/photo is sold UNFRAMED, and will be carefully rolled in a hard tube with many layers of protection for safe international shipping. Delivery 3-4 days from Berlin after your place your order. John P. Jacob, Curator for Photography at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington: Matthias Leupold's photographs are in variably elegant, their simplicity is always deceptive. Leupold merges mythology with historical narrative, and fiction with reality. As much as they speak of the artist personal history and as admirably as they describe the culturewithin hin lives and works, Matthias Leupold's photographs illustrate the complexity of photography itself. Occasionally serious, often mocking but never scolding... (Introduction, M.L. Living Pictures, catalogue Künstlerdorf Schöppingen 1995/1996) Matthias Leupold himself refers to his pictures as scenic photographs. Admittedly, the term is unusual, but it describes the way in which Leupold works more precisely than the established notions of staged or staging photography. The word scenic refers to a particular place; skene was the arena or the stage in antique Greek theatre, while a scene in the modern sense is a short, self-contained part of a theatre play or film. Transferred to photography, therefore, it means a place where something is presented to us so that we may look at it. And it also means the arena for an event, for an action as part of a narrative or a story. With very few exceptions, Leupold produces this event - embedded into a story or evoking one - especially for the purpose of photographing and holding on to it – in his picture. Leupold took up a special, almost incommensurable position from the very beginning: his work is not characterised by rational calculation or explicit media reflection, and it demonstrates very few special photographic techniques. Instead its qualities are playfulness, poetry, dreaminess, a gentle melancholy, pictorial narratives, narrative series and irony. The developments and gains in Leupold’s work during the four short years in East Berlin may be summed up as three fields of opposing tension: between the static and the dynamic, between contemplation and narration, and between the joke and the symbol. In the pictures, however, these dimensions do not divide up, but – to some extent or even fully – they fall into one. T.O. Immisch, Leader of Photographic Collection Art Museum Halle, Saale: Matthias Leupold’s Fictive Images The fundamentals of Leupold's artistic photographics works
In his photographic series, Leupold investigates the manifestation and the social ties of various picture groups. "Appearance and being, realism and illusion become conceptually mixed up for the viewer. What should he believe? What is considered acceptable?" This quote by the german publicist Enno Kaufhold displays the diversity of Leupolds artistic creations, which are thematically tied to the german politcal system of the twentieth century. In particular, the differences between the social and art worlds of the GDR and the FRG. Leupold's photographic art does not require description; it is revealed by looking closely at each individual - a school of seeing that offers insights into contexts. Entire stories are focussed in the one all-bundling key image, from which a narrative can be read backwards and forwards - a game with our ability to associate - a test of our perceptive faculty. Leupold is author, director, set designer, documentarist - seemingly affirming and conserving, but in reality critically reflecting and challenging us to think further..." Prof. Dr. Ulrich Eckhardt, 1973-2001 artistic director of the Berliner Festspiele: (from the laudatory speech at the opening of the exhibition THE TIME HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN at the Art and Media Centre, in Berlin-Adlershof 2003) Artist Statement by Matthias Leupold Staged photography is a tool to realize my artistic intentions. The technical medium photography allows to either fixate or transform past, present or already enunciated situations. Concerning that, my photography envelops many different historical aspects: the reflection of present happenings and the re-staging of historical references. Actors and models are placed in various landscapes or urban ex- and interiors, which I interpret to be "playgrounds" or stages for my photography. My inspiration is fed by the "outrageous occurence", the genius loci and by the observation of human interaction. Subject matters such as loneliness, vulnerability, injury and dissipation are taken on in tableaus or single photographs. Matthias Leupold received his (Master Pupil+Diploma: MFA) in Communication Design at Universty of Art Berlin, Germany. His work has been shown at the New Nationalgalerie, Hamburger Bahnhof-Museum for Moder Art, Academie of Art, all in Berlin, Berlinische Galerie, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Rosa Esman Gallry New York, M.I.T. Cambridge, PRC Boston University, Art-School, Portland/Main, Maison du Danemark, Paris, Center of Contemporary Art, Warzcawa, Center of Contemporary Art, Tallinn, Berlin, Photo+ Düsseldorf, Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle, NRW Forum Düsseldorf. He has a professorship at a Berlin university.