Women As Art:
50 Years of an Evolving Vision

About the Exhibition

"Today there are tens of thousands of serious photographers seeking new interpretations of the beauty of the female form. There is but a handful whose work truly interests us by revealing different ways of seeing and understanding this beauty. Robert Farber is one of the very few who is able to delight and please us in this elusive approach to nature. From abstraction to realism he reveals to us his love of the female form. His delightful and beautiful photographs offer a unique pleasure."

—Arnold Newman, 2001

"Farber’s photographs introduce viewers to a world of beauty in which women are often overlooked and objectified by society. Exploring the female form, he captures the true essence of a woman in her undisturbed element. His works entice the viewer to contemplate and question beauty versus sexuality, encouraging reconsideration in the way one looks at the female form." - Nicole Ianniello, curator

Farber began his commercial career as a fashion photographer in 1976 and experienced parallel growth as a fine art photographer when he published his first book of nudes that year.

His distinctive style was reflected in all genres of his work, making his commercial work indistinguishable from his fine art photographs. This resulted not only in an escalation of his early career, but also acceptance of his vintage fashion images as fine art in his later years.

The Wet Series

In April 2018, a flood nearly destroyed half of Farber's studio in the middle of the night. Most of the print archives survived, but the flood still left several catalogues of small, non-archival prints drenched.

As Farber separated these images, he found himself discarding only the unaffected ones and keeping these new abstractions of the original prints.

In all genres of his work, Farber presents women engaged in diverse ranges of activities that showcase their beauty and emotional power through physical form.

His works isolate common notions of sexual objectification, turning photographs into picturesque compositions that frequently possess a painterly quality.

Farber's work with nudes in fine art as well as the commercial realm is known and respected as one of his career's most iconic genres. He has given lectures on the use of nudes in advertising and his book, "Farber Nudes," was included in the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis estate collection.

"Bodies are fully as expressive as faces. Sometimes the arch of a back, the curve described by an arm, the tension of an outstretched leg, can evoke responses that a facial expression can't."
—Robert Farber

With new visions and new mediums within his reach, Farber continues to experiment with the possibilities of his photography into the present day. As he revisits fifty years of images, his subjects experience a unique, contemporary revival in several forms, some literally morphing before our eyes from classic beauty to pure abstraction in the photographer's video art debut.

Farber's Entrée into Video Art

The following are five pieces that will be presented on 65-inch monitors fitted for gallery exhibitions as well as collector acquisitions. The monitors can be placed amongst gallery prints, bringing further relevance and meaning to these transformational videos.

Motion 1

Motion 2

Motion 3

Motion 4

Motion 5

The videos above are demo versions, intended as shorter overviews of the Collector Editions. Each full piece moves more slowly and lasts approximately ten minutes. Please inquire to learn more.

Credits
Curated by Nicole Ianniello
Exhibition design, development, and production by Sophie Bell, Jean Michel Hoffman, and Ian McDonough

All photographs printed on Moab by Legion Paper