Aspen Skiing Company Introduces New Art Book, The Aspen Series by Walter Niedermayr
- ASPEN, Colorado
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- March 25, 2013
Aspen Skiing Company (ASC), in conjunction with Jim and Paula Crown, announces the release of the book The Aspen Series by Walter Niedermayr. The book vividly explores the commission and exhibition of Niedermayr's 42 photographic compositions representing landscape scenes of specific locales across the four mountains that make up Aspen/Snowmass.
The 120-page hardcover book featuring 90 color illustrations is co-published by Hatje Cante Verlag and Paula and Jim Crown. The book includes a conversational exchange between Walter Niedermayr and Paula Crown; an introduction by curator Chris Byrne; and an essay by Catherine Grout. The book retails for $60.00 and is distributed in the United States by D.A.P.
The Aspen Series was commissioned in 2009 by Paula and Jim Crown, partners of Aspen Skiing Company and passionate art collectors. The series also includes a video entitled “Downhill 2009” and digital murals and banners created by the artist specifically for the project. Each of the vast alpine landscapes was shot from different vantage points and aerial locations. The work is on view across the four mountains that make up Aspen/Snowmass, as well as in other unexpected places. Visit the website for details.
Walter Niedermayr has worked in alpine regions around the world since the late 1980s, using his camera to explore the issues surrounding the presence and interference of people in sensitive landscapes. These are the first works produced in the U.S. by the internationally acclaimed photographer. The Aspen Series depicts the winter landscape of the iconic ski resort in the Rocky Mountains, on which a highly ambitious kind of tourism has taken a heavy toll. In his masterful cycle of photographs, Niedermayr remains a precise, critical observer of the way the landscape has been transformed by the “homo touristicus.” The combination of Neidermayr’s photography and the epic mountain scenery is a visual tour de force.
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 crisscross the surface of the photographs. His unique visual devices within the compositions expose the expansive nature of alpine scenes combined with the presence of human beings as they appear tiny and scattered, as accents of bright color against vast stretches of white snow.
Walter Niedermayr was born in Bolzano, Italy in 1952. He began photographing the landscape in 1987 and is recognized worldwide for his large-scale photographs presented as multi-panel works. His projects include Alpine Landscapes (1987), Rohbauten/Shell Constructions (1987), Raumfolgen Space con/Sequences (1991), Artefakte/Artifacts (1992),and Bildraum/Space Images (2000). Published in 1992, the artist’s monograph entitled Die bleichen Berge/The Pale Mountains portrayedthe alpine landscapes for the first time.
Aspen Skiing Company and the Crown Family are mission-driven to provide the best skiing and snowboarding experience for their guests. Since its founding in 1947, ASC has been committed to the renewal of mind, body and spirit, and the appreciation of our place in the natural world. The Aspen Series continues this tradition, and establishes Aspen/Snowmass as a unique cultural and recreational destination. Combing nature and tourism in alpine landscapes from a new and exciting perspective, this innovative slopeside exhibition is another one of the many reasons to visit Aspen/Snowmass.
Aspen Skiing Company operates the four mountains in the Aspen/Snowmass area—Snowmass, Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, and Buttermilk—as well as the award-winning Ski & Snowboard Schools of Aspen/Snowmass. For more information on Aspen Skiing Company, visit www.aspensnowmass.com.
Press Contacts:
Daniela Stigh
Rubenstein Communications
Lea Tucker
Aspen/Snowmass
