Walter Niedermayr
THE ASPEN SERIES The Aspen Series by Walter Niedermayr was commissioned in 2009 by Paula and Jim Crown, partners of Aspen Skiing Company. They are the first works produced in the U.S. by the internationally acclaimed photographer. The combination of Niedermayr’s photography and the stunning mountain scenery is a visual tour de force. Even longtime Aspenites remarked that they “saw the mountains anew” through Niedermayr’s work. Aspen Skiing Company and the Crown Family are mission-driven to provide the best skiing and snowboarding experience for you, our guests. Since its founding in 1947, Aspen Skiing Company has been committed to the renewal of the mind, body and spirit, and appreciation of our place in the natural world. The Aspen Series continues that tradition. This innovative, slopeside exhibit is another one of the many reasons to make Aspen/Snowmass your vacation destination.
THE ARTIST Walter Niedermayr was born in Bolzano, Italy in 1952. Niedermayr began photographing the landscape in 1987 and is recognized worldwide for his distinctive visual use of multi-panel images and subtle color.
element 47 The Little Nell’s new signature restaurant, element 47, gives diners a visual feast, featuring a collaboration among artists from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The restaurant name is a nod to silver on the periodic table and Aspen’s mining history, while the artwork itself plays to the concept. Most pieces were commissioned specifically for the space. Untitled Angel Otero Oil Paint & Oil Skins collaged on canvas
Cockpit Side, 2012 Paula Crown Untitled Scott Reeder Enamel on Canvas A Series of Three Untitled Works Michelle Grabner Silverpoint on Panel
presents Untitled Philip Vanderhyden Oil on Burlap
THE ASPEN SERIES
Untitled Jose Lerma Paint on Carpet
Trees (Bracket) Cameron Martin Acrylic on Canvas
Walter Niedermayr
Untitled #4 Rafael Vega Acrylic on Masonite
01
04
ASPEN 20/2009: Sam’s Knob at Snowmass · Diptych “Man’s concept of real-world landscapes is perceived through mediabased images. Man’s approach towards the real world has taken place largely by means of the image. Perception of landscape is primarily the perception of images.” — Walter Niedermayr
ASPEN 105/2009: Aspen Mountain & Tiehack at Buttermilk Eight-part light box Each of the vast alpine landscapes was shot from different vantage points and aerial locations. “For me to break up a single image is a staging of time and space. Images and imaginations of space are movable fragments and, in this sense, incomplete framings.” — Walter Niedermayr
07 ASPEN 98/2009: Highland Bowl at Aspen Highlands · Quadriptych “The difference between staging and reality must be renegotiated over and over again. The more sophisticated the technology becomes, the more problematic the notion of reality.” — Walter Niedermayr
ASPEN 25/2009 · Diptych “The depiction of the landscape itself in the two photos is regarded by most people as a so-called natural landscape, which isn’t actually correct because it is in fact a cultural landscape that has been modified and constructed by humans to serve their purposes; one might also describe it as nature that has been custom formatted to meet the needs of the tourist industry.” – Walter Niedermayr
Exhibit location: Terrace Bar at The Little Nell, Aspen
Exhibit location: The Limelight Hotel, Aspen
02 05 ASPEN 34/2009: Aspen Mountain · Triptych, light box “Through multiplicity, an instantaneous photographic image breaks the concept of place and time. This literally amplifies the ‘horizons’ of our perception.”— Walter Niedermayr Exhibit location: Sundeck, Benedict Room, Aspen Mountain
ASPEN 51/2009: Aspen Highlands · Diptych “My work alternates between the appearance of so-called reality and the reality of the image; it aims to reveal medial representation as well as to foster and clarify perception.” — Walter Niedermayr Exhibit location: The Limelight Hotel, Aspen
03 DIGITAL BANNERS · Digital image on vinyl These unique banners are composed of images taken from each of the four mountains at Aspen/Snowmass. According to Niedermayr, this composite pattern alternates between the appearance of reality and the manipulated reality of the image, with an aim to heighten our awareness by revealing the conventions of representation.
08
Exhibition location: Buttermilk Ticket Office, Buttermilk
ASPEN 02/2009: Buttermilk · Quadriptych Niedermayr’s photographic works, with their multiple parts, reveal an environment that lies beyond the world of experience. The attitudes have more to do with imagination than with traditional photographic representation.
Exhibit location: The Little Nell lobby, Aspen
Exhibit location: Sundeck, Aspen Mountain; Bumps, Buttermilk
15
ASPEN 81/2009 · Diptych “I imagine creating an image space in which the observer is able to define his own point of view. Ambiguity in respect to content, ambiguity in respect to form, and ambiguity regarding the possibility of a closer examination. There are several potential approaches such as social or landscape-specific processes or aesthetic questions in respect to landscape, spatial consciousness and environmental/ ecological awareness as well as questions regarding perception – the reality of the image, spatial reality, the limits of representation, etc. The work is not obvious, though at first glance it might seem so.” — Walter Niedermayr Exhibition location: Elk Camp, Snowmass Mountain
11
Exhibit location: The Limelight Hotel, Aspen
ASPEN 05/2009 · Diptych “I look for places where people are doing something in the landscape, where they are occupying and restructuring it. I find places that are largely devoid of people far less interesting. One might conclude that the only landscapes we have left are cultural landscapes, that natural landscapes in a so-called “pure” state have virtually ceased to exist because man has already been practically everywhere.” – Walter Niedermayr
09
ASPEN 06/2009: Elk Camp at Snowmass · Diptych Niedermayr surveys the interaction between man and nature with a cool, objective eye, presenting an updated take on a sublime landscape that now features ski lifts, gondolas and snow scored by the paths of skiers and brightly colored clothing—these lines graphically criss-cross the surface of the photographs. “Velocity changes and reduces our degree of perceptiveness. A central aspect to my work is limited representation employed in diverse variants.” — Walter Niedermayr Exhibit location: TBD
16
13
“Every representation is also a production of representation, and therefore a medial construction.” – Walter Niedermayr
06 ASPEN 26/2009: Aspen Highlands · Triptych “I believe that one can take and preserve something from every place, as long as one really gets involved in the place, even though sometimes unconsciously. In the end every place we meet leaves its traces inside us. Perhaps my works are somehow like these trace impressions, making visible the context of Aspen through images.” — Walter Niedermayr
12
10
ASPEN 30/2009: Buttermilk Superpipe · Diptych “Using the medium of photography, I try to dissent from realism in an attempt to show the openness and limitlessness that lies in front of and behind the image. The visible becomes visible within a horizon only if the not-visible recedes. White originates by mixing together all of the colors of the spectrum at the same level of energy, or by detracting colors from inks or pigments.” — Walter Niedermayr
ASPEN 88/2009: Panda Peak at Buttermilk · Diptych, light box “Spaces and places are produced through pictorial communication. They function as the carriers and mirror images of social needs and desires. The perception of landscape or nature is still committed to the classical image: the relationship between human being and nature by contrast.” — Walter Niedermayr Exhibit location: Treehouse Kids’ Adventure Center, Snowmass Base Village
Exhibit location: Advanced Sales Office at Two Creeks, Snowmass
Exhibition location: Cliffhouse, Buttermilk Mountain
ASPEN 77/2009 · Diptych “The perception of this alpine space, in particular of the landscape and nature, continues to be committed to the conventional image: the antipodal relation between man and nature. Here unspoiled and veritable nature; there the already tainted antithesis, altered by approximation and use, vanished.” — Walter Niedermayr
17
14
Exhibition location: Merry-Go-Round, Aspen Highlands ASPEN 32/2009: Fanny Hill on Snowmass · Diptych, light box Niedermayr’s work presents images of startling beauty and subtle complexity, inviting one to contemplate man’s evolving relationship to his environment. “From a spatial point of view, everything is perpetually changing; including people and fashions. Nothing changes as quickly as the world of tourism, with leisure and sport activities evolving. These forms of movement create new structures within the landscape and changes the circumstances of the present.” — Walter Niedermayr
12 01 02 03 09
ASPEN 110/2009 · Diptych, light box “Reality is constructed through our senses, thus the so-called truth about our existence is only an apparent one. There is no right way of viewing, nor are there formally definitive solutions that can rise above all that are momentary.” — Walter Niedermayr Exhibition location: CSUSA Offices, Denver, Colorado
Exhibit location: Snowmass Gondola Ticket Office, Snowmass Base Village
Inspired by our partnership with Aspen Art Museum, Aspen Skiing Company continues the Art in Unexpected Places Program by printing unique contemporary art images, including selections from The Aspen Series, on lift tickets for the ninth consecutive year. To learn more about our program, please visit www.aspensnowmass.com/we-are-different/art-in-unexpected-places.
14 15 16 13 04 05 06 07 08 element 47
03 10 11
17
DENVER
For information and inquiries regarding fine art prints please call 214-871-0550.