Rolf Koppel
Lessons in the Self Portrait, 2001
Silver Gelatin print
20 x 16"

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Rolf Koppel: Willing

Exhibition Dates: February 16 to March 17, 2012
Opening Reception: February 15; 6 - 8 pm
Curator & Artist Discussion: February 21; 6-8 pm
at the
Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art 26 Wooster Street, New York, NY 10013

[New York, NY - January 2012] Rolf Koppel: Willing
is a photography exhibition richly charged with fantasy, bearing witness to the interaction of the photographer, Rolf Koppel with his muse and partner William Light Johnson. Will is no simple Narcissus figure in his ever-changing guises, no more than Koppel is merely the photographer, condemned to the role of voyeur. Koppel and his muse exchange roles again and again, reminding us that in addition to representing objects, photographers themselves are objects that their pictures represent.

Curated by Austrian art historian Peter Weiermair, Rolf Koppel: Willing runs from February 16 to March 17, 2012 at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in New York. An Opening Reception will be held on Wednesday, February 15th from 6 to 8 pm. On Tuesday, February 21st, from 6-8 pm, there will be a Curator & Artist Discussion.

Rolf Koppel engages the history of art not by repeating its periods but instead by processing, internalizing, and alluding to them. The muse, Will, on a search for "his photographer" finds him in the blinding light of Santa Fe, while Rolf discovers in Will the ideal model-arrogance, grace, lascivious desire and pagan sexuality, the very incarnation of the body language in the sculptures of classical antiquity.

Koppel says: 
The Greeks had designated the balance between intelligence, awareness, sensuousness, and sensuality through pose, gesture and proportion.  And as an intelligent artist himself, Will comprehends that before the camera he is a representative of himself as well as of me. He knows that desire and doubt, intellect and awareness can occur simultaneously in the same image.

Koppel, too, sets roles in motion, presenting himself as the passionate satyr who instructs his youthful faun in new lustful games.

Born in Hamburg in 1937, the artist Rolf Koppel left Germany with his Jewish parents at the age of two, traveling to Sweden and later emigrating to the U.S. He graduated in the 1950s from Hunter College in New York, where he was mentored by Robert Motherwell. Koppel played an instrumental role in the growth of photography as an independent artistic discipline in university curricula during his post graduate studies at the University of Iowa and as an instructor during the 1960s.

Rolf Koppel: Willing includes over 60 images, representing 30 years of Koppel's career. During the exhibition, Rolf Koppel, Photographs 1976 > 2003, and Will, two books by All Saints Press, and his most recent book, Basement Arcade, published by Fotohof edition 2012, will be available for purchase.

About the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art
Now accredited as the first dedicated LGBTQ art museum in the world, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art began as the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation founded by Charles W. Leslie and Fritz Lohman, and for more than 20 years has supported gay and lesbian artists.

Our mission is to exhibit, preserve and foster the creation of LGBTQ art and artists which speaks directly to a gay and lesbian experience, including erotic, political, romantic and social imagery. We embrace this rich creative history by informing, inspiring, entertaining and challenging all who enter our doors.

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art has a permanent collection of more than 6,000 objects spanning more than three centuries of queer art. Our programs include regularly scheduled exhibitions in our gallery, video events, workshop presentation of plays, artists' and curator's talks, panel discussions, THE ARCHIVE-a quarterly newsletter focusing on LGBTQ art and artists, a membership program, a research library and an archive of the permanent collection.

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The Leslie/Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art
26 Wooster Street
(btwn Canal & Grand)
New, York, NY  10013
Hours: 12 Noon - 6pm, Tue - Sat
Closed: Sun & Mon & all major holidays
Phone: 212-431-2609
Fax: 212-431-2666

ROLF KOPPEL: WILLING
Opening Reception: Wednesday, February 15, 6pm - 8pm
Exhibition Runs: February 16 to March 17, 2012
Curator & Artist Discussion: February 21, 6pm - 8pm
Gallery Hours: Tues - Sat: Noon-6pm

For press questions please contact:
Jerry Kajpust, Director of External Affairs
212.431.2609
jerry@leslielohman.org
www.leslielohman.org