Pinky Bass

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Pinky M. M. Bass (born 1936) is an American photographer, known for her work in pinhole photography.

Bass, a resident of Fairhope, Alabama, has exhibited at a number of museums including the Ashville Art Museum, Birmingham Museum of Art, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Huntsville Museum of Art in Huntsville, Alabama, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery, Alabama, Mobile Museum of Art in Mobile, Alabama, National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C., the Philadelphia Museum of Artand the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina among others.[1]

Well known for her work in pinhole photography,[2] Bass has also been published in Aperture #115, 1989 and #141, 1995 (SAF/NEA Fellowship Supplement), and Pinhole Journal and is in the collections of the Polaroid Corporation. Bass has taught numerous workshops in pinhole camera across the United States including EMRYS Foundation, Penland School of Crafts[3]and University of Memphis[4] and Space One Eleven. Known for her portable pop-up pinhole cameras, The first of these cameras was a giant pinhole she made out of a pop-up camper -- "Pinky's Portable Pop-up Pinhole Camera and Darkroom".[5] She made this piece for the "Itinerant Photography Project" in 1989.[6]

In March of 1997, Pinky Bass was one of a large number of women honored by the Georgia Commission on Women for "Georgia Women in the Visual Arts".[7]

Contents

[edit] Work

"For Donna'" Barrister's Gallery curated by Deborah Luster featured works by Pinky Bass, Ruth Marten, Danna Moore, Laura Noland-Hunter, Donna Service, Barrister's Gallery, New Orleans. Bass' work was part of "The Lensless View: Contemporary Pinhole Photography" curated by Diana H. Bloomfield along with work by Rebecca Sexton Larson, Scott McMahon, Christopher Sims, Sarah Van Keuren and Sam Wang. "The Enchanted Mishap", Explores the theme of chance accidents that produce surprising images, includes work by Pertti Saloheimo, Clint O'Connor and Pinky Bass. Pinhole Journal Vol 19 #1[8]

In 2006 Bass work was included in "(Id) An Exhibition of Self Portraiture" along with Dieter Appelt, Judy Dater, Nate Larson, Robert Mapplethorpe, Arno Rafael Minkkinen, Constance Thalken and Bill Thoma.[9]

Work by Bass was included in an exhibition called "Voices Rising: Alabama Women at the Millennium" by the Alabama State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.[10] This exhibition was made into a video presentation (also called Voices Rising) that ran on Alabama Public Television,[11]

Bass has had over 40 solo exhibitions, many of which traveled including, "BodyWorks" at the University of Montevallo, Bloch Hall Gallery in Spring 2006,[12] Bass again exhibited work that was unique to the female artist perspective. Much of Bass work is metaphysical and ethereal, about how we intuitively understand ourselves.

From 1992 and until 2000, Pinky Bass was represented by Agnes gallery in Birmingham, Alabama.

In "On/of Paper" curated by Pieter Favier included artists from across the country illustrating the diversity of paper, a medium many art critics may overlook. Each artist featured used paper in some fashion to create their featured art. Bass showed a series of her hand-stitched photography at Space 301' in Mobile, Alabama.

Bass was recently included in "Politics, Politics: Nice Artists Explore the Political Landscape" curated by Anne Arrasmith and Peter Prinz of Space One Eleven. This exhibition was funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and included Clayton Colvin, Peggy Dobbins, Randy Gachet, binx Newton, Arthur Price, John Trobaugh, Paul Ware, and Stan Woodard.

In late 2007, Bass' work was chosen by curator, Jon Coffelt as the inaugural artist for the new book arts program at SPACE Gallery in New York, NY. Bass exhibited her "Cuerpos Santos Series" here.[13], SPACE Gallery, New York, 2007. This was Bass first solo exhibition in New York, NY.

[edit] Awards

  • Residency, Oregon College of Art & Craft, Portland, Oregon 2004
  • Residency, Western Carolina University, Cullowee, NC 2000
  • Resen Ceramic Colony Residency (Catalog Photographer), Republic of Macedonia 1997
  • Souther Arts Federation/National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship 1995
  • International Print Exhibition Award, Print Club, Philadelphia, PA 1990
  • Site Sculpture Grant "Big Box Camera", Arts Festival of Atlanta, GA 1990
  • Alabama Fellowship Grant, Alabama State Council on the Arts 1991
  • North Carolina Visual Arts Project Grant 1992
  • North Carolina Visual Artistic Fellowship Grant 1993
  • Interdisciplinary Grant (Regional Artist Project) for "The Itinerant Photographer" 1989
  • Artist Residency, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY 1988[citation needed]

[edit] Quotes

  • On pinhole photography . . . "I love the word integrity. It's not about being moral-- it's about being whole. So if the camera or the object that you are using to make the photograph has something to do with the image that comes out of it, then there's a lot of integrity there." - Pinky Bass, "Coat of Many Colors"
  • ...the profile of a middle-aged woman (a self-portrait?) looks toward a fecund pregnant torso, which is heavily draped at the top, giving it universality: It could be any woman. The belly bulges, and the breasts are pendulous with milk for the coming infant. An unavoidable sexual element is presented here, but it is instantly recognized as a cultural construct, not the intent of the artist. The viewer is left to wonder what's happening in the mind of the older woman: Is she a mentor? Is she remembering her own body, distended with new life? More questions than answers here. -Connie Bostic[14]
  • "My favorite piece, 'This Old House,' contains a great mix of light and shadow play. To look at this piece, the eye is led from the right side of the photo to the left, an unconventional viewpoint. The two subjects, an older, wrinkled woman and a dilapidated house, set each other off very effectively. One is led to find the connection between the aged, defeated old woman and the deteriorating house with an amazing clarity." - Vanessa Keber[15]
  • "I began stitching internal organs onto photographic images when my sister was dying of cancer. My son had died the year before and both my parents the year following. The accidental death of my friend and artist collaborator, Kitty Couch, drew me even deeper into myself and this intimate process of grieving /creating." - Pinky Bass [16]
  • Pinky Bass turns the body inside out with the frankness of aging, the beauty of acceptance, and the power to adorn the experience of loss and continuance. - Light Factory

[edit] Books

  • "How to make a PinHole Camera" on pages 15 and 23 from The Book of Alternative Processes by James Christopher, Delmar Press, Albany, NY, 2001, Dewey, 771. ISBN, 0766820777
  • "Sleep: Bedtime Reading," 1998 by Roger Gorman and Robert Peacock, Universe Publishing, 96pp SBN-13: 9780789301123 ISBN: 0789301121

[edit] Film

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Huntsville Museum of Art, Montgomery Museum of Art, Mobile Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts: as one of twelve participants in "Voices Rising: Alabama Women at the Millennium"; "Professor Elected for National Exhibit", University of Alabama at Birmingham press release, 24 March 2000. Bass is mentioned as among "13 exciting photographers" (and a list of 14) participating in the exhibition "Making Pictures" at Asheville Art Museum: "Asheville Art Museum in Asheville, NC, Features American Photography", Carolina Arts, June 2000. Birmingham Museum of Art: "Museum Hosts 50th Anniversary Party and Statewide Premiere of Documentary on Alabama Artists". Contemporary Arts Museum Houston: Bass is listed as among the 22 participants in The International Pinhole Photography Exhibition, June 30–September 9, 1990, Exhibition History, 1990s, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. High Museum of Art: as mentioned in an auction page for her work Aburrations II, the Light Factory. Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art: Bass is mentioned as one of 13 participants in "Pure Light: Southern Pinhole Photography", 2003. "Pure Light: Southern Pinhole Photography", website of Jan Kapoor.
  2. ^ www.carolinaarts.com/405upstairs.html
  3. ^ Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC
  4. ^ EMRYS Foundation: EMRYS Foundation. University of Memphis: "Lectures", Number, no. 37, Winter 2000 (PDF).
  5. ^ The camera is mentioned by Christopher James, The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes (Thomson, 2002; ISBN 0766820777), 15. This part of the book is reproduced within the publisher's sample PDF.
  6. ^ Christopher James, The Pinhole", chap. 1 of The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes (PDF).
  7. ^ "HR 455 - 'Georgia Women's History Month'; recognize month of March, 1997".
  8. ^ PhotoEye Newsletter Archive
  9. ^ The Light Factory, Charlotte, North Carolina, Contemporary Museum of Photography and Film
  10. ^ National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA)
  11. ^ Alabama Public Television, "Voices Rising"
  12. ^ "Body Works", University of Montevallo solo exhibition
  13. ^ "Cuerpos Santos Series images shown here"
  14. ^ Connie Bostic, "Slow Hand: Despite new digital enhancements, you can't rush pinhole photography" 2005 MountainZ review
  15. ^ Vanessa Keber, "Gallery 303 opening boasts variety", Arts and Entertainment, Georgia Daily.
  16. ^ Collaboration of Kitty Couch and Pinky Bass, produced by Carolyn DeMerrit, 1993
  17. ^ Alabama State Council for the Arts

[edit] External links