Rudie Berkhout On View at Higher Pictures, NYC

Sat, May 19 - Tue, Jul 3  2018

Higher Pictures

From May 19th until July 3rd, Dutch visual artist Rudie Berkhout will be on view at Higher Pictures, New York, NY, in the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery: “Transmission Holograms 1978-1981”.

“Transmission Holograms 1978-1981”

Rudie Berkhout (1946–2008) moved from Amsterdam to New York City in 1974 and was introduced to holography at the historic survey exhibition “Holography ’75: The First Decade” at the International Center of Photography in 1975. Inspired, Berkhout dedicated himself to the study and making of holograms soon becoming one of the medium’s leading figures.

Made during a period of widespread popular interest in holography, Berkhout’s transmission holograms represent the height of his artistic production and recognition. In a transmission hologram, a light is shone through the back of a glass plate treated with silver halide; as it illuminates the silver halide crystals, a three-dimensional image of light appears suspended behind the plate’s surface. The composition is experienced in space as a sculpture, changing as the viewer shifts perspective, moves up and down, or walks around the image.

In Berkhout’s work, colored spheres float, materialize, and disappear, all at varying depths in illusory holographic space; bands of color flow in and out of each other; infinitely undulating waves of light resemble ripples moving along the surface of water. For Berkhout, holography was the convergence of art, science, and philosophy, expanding the dialogue of image-making while presenting the brain with a visual experience that it knows is physically impossible. Like artists’ use of coding, digital animation software, and robotics today, holography was an early example of technology being rapidly adopted for artistic use.

About Rudie Berkhout

Rudie Berkhout’s solo exhibitions include “The Floating World: Holograms by Rudie Berkhout,” at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz (2016); “Light Years: The Art of Rudie Berkhout,” at the IMC Lab + Gallery, New York (2011); and “Light Magic: Rudie Berkhout,” at Holocenter, New York (2009). His work has been included in group exhibitions at the ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe; MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the International Center of Photography, New York.

Rudie Berkhout’s work is held in numerous public collections, including those of the Art, Science & Technology Institute, Washington, DC; Franklin Institute, Philadelphia; Gekkoso Gallery, Tokyo; MIT Museum, Cambridge; and the National Museum of Science & Technology, Ottawa.