Gartel's career and oevre
ARTIST BACKGROUND:
In 1975, GARTEL began experimenting with analog computer systems for the purposes of making art. He worked with video guru Mr. Nam June Paik at Media Study Buffalo, where he started taking photographs offthe monitor of his electronic imagery. Over the years, Mr. Gartel has worked with many different systems in the art making process. His digital work shave been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art as far back as 1982. Other institutions include, Musee Francais de la Photographie, Bibliotheque Nationale, Princeton Art Museum, Long Beach Museum of Art, Amerika HausFrankfurt, The Joan Whitney Payson Museum, and the Norton Museum of Art.. Heis the first [digital] artist to have a permanent work included in the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of American History.

He has created commissioned works for such projects as: ABSOLUT GARTEL for Absolut Vodka, Coca Cola, Philip Morris, Sprint, Commerzbank, Roche Pharmaceuticals, SWATCH, Boy Scouts of America, Phoenix Suns Basketball Team, Future Film Festival of Bologna, 10th Anniversary Film Festival of Ft.Lauderdale, and The Walt Disney Company to name a few.

Recently, he had a new book published, "GARTEL: Arte & Tecnologia" by Edizioni Mazzotta, Milan, Italy. With over 250 pages and 400 color plates, the Introduction to this landmark book was written by noted art historian, Pierre Restany.

The IDAA in Melbourne, Australia has created the "Laurence Gartel Award" for digital excellence which they will give to a deserving new media artist in their annual 2001 awards.

Says Gartel of his passion for his work: "I do what I do for the experience and richness of life. There is nothing like art. If I were to say I had a hobby, it would be to study the great masters of our civilization: Bernini, Carravaggio,Michaelangelo, Botticelli. There is nothing like witnessing perfection. 'ART is PASSION.' Making love enriches ones spirit, but then it wears off. 'ART IS FOREVER.' There is nothing temporal about a great work of art. You remember it and experience it always.

"I do what I do because I am selfish. I want to inject myself with the greatest sense of self and live to tell another day. To make art is to gain spirituality and a sense of place in time and space. And, at the same time, making art gives you a sense of weightlessness and timelessness. (You just can't achieve that working in a brokerage firm.)

"The flip side is that what you create is an enrichment and an enlightenment for others throughout time. Unborn generations may shed a tear as to what one might create today. 'Birth of Venus' by Botticelli is my best example. That painting looks as contemporary today as it did 500 year ago. It speaks to people beyond their mortal selves. It communicates presently to 40 generations beyond its time. Nothing else can do that

On the brink of the 21st century we are faced with a different criteria for living. Our society is all about Consumption, GM Foods, Petroleum, The Media, Television. Just how much more can we absorb, consume or digestNULL Today we are living in an attention deficit society, people cannot concentrate on the simple, they are overloaded with media from all sides. Laurence Gartel attempts to interpret these issues.

Laurences work spans 3 decades, from the early seventies when he used experimental television equipment, with no memory, or hard drives, just bending and colorizing the images on screen from black & white video sources to nowadays working with the latest computers, software and digital cameras often before they are released. His unique style has been used for advertising by Coca-Cola and Absolut Vodka And Laurence is currently working on a project for Disney.

His use of computers helps him to push familiar images (cars, nudes, flowers) into the realm of dreams. At once, sensual and playful, Gartel's fiercely colorful visions provoke astonishment and pleasure as they challenge our habits of perception.

Gartel's ...work vacillates intriguingly between the concrete and the abstract, beckoning us toward a fantasy realm in which vision and feeling are interdependent. There is also a sense of pure enjoyment, of experimentation for its own sake, that gives many of the works a whimsical quality. Toy like forms recur frequently as symbols of play or because they stir in us memories of a time when our minds were open to new sensation.

Helen A Harrison,New York Times.
_________________________________
Gartel is a founding "PIONEER" of the Digital Art movement. Gartel could also be considered the father of the paintbox era (circa 1986), who actually started this technique 10 years prior to any software being written for painting and photo-manipulation. He used digital synthesizers, TVs and then output photographically as a dyesub & Polaroid prints. It was also 10 years before Warhol did his Amiga prints of Deborah Harry.

His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Joan Whitney Payson Museum, Long Beach Museum of Art, Princeton Art Museum, PS 1, Norton Museum and in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History and the Bibliotheque Nationale. His biography for his pioneering efforts is included in "Who's Who," "Who's Who in the East," "Who's Who in America," "Who's Who in American Art," and "Who's Who in the World."

Born and raised in New York City, Mr. Gartel had the opportunity to teach Andy Warhol how to use the Amiga Computer, went to School of Visual Arts, with fellow art student, grafitti artist Keith Haring, where he earned his BFA degree majoring in Graphics, and started his electronic career working side by side with Nam June Paik at Media Study/Buffalo in upstate New York.

Gartel had many associations with musicians such as Debbie Harry (Blonde) Sid Vicious (Sex Pistols), Stiv Bators (Dead Boys) Johnny Thunders (New York Dolls) Ace Frehley (Kiss) and Wendy O Williams (Plasmatics). Recently, Gartel has created artwork for such Pop Culture stars such as Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears.

He has several monograph books on his work:
"Laurence Gartel: A Cybernetic Romance" published by Gibbs Smith, (c) 1989 Utah. Introduction to the book is written by video guru Nam June Paik.

"GARTEL: Arte & Tecnologia" published by Edizioni Mazzotta, (c) 1998 Milano, Italy. Introduction to the book is written by noted art historian and critic
Pierre Restany. 250 pages over 400 colour plates.

Gartel was recently included in the Italian Art History Textbook: "La Storia Dell Arte" published by Editions Giunti (c) 2001, Firenze. Michelangelo at the front of the book and GARTEL being the last page representing "NEW VISUAL LANGUAGES."

***
"The gallery made international history again in December 1990, when Laurence Gartel used digital cameras developed by Canon for the Gulf War to photograph visitors as they entered the gallery and the first large toner printer, the Canon Bubble Jet, to output manipulated color prints of their images. "It was fun to see how Larry could shoot photos of people as they entered the gallery, manipulate them on a computer, and then print them out right away," Miller said. "Everyone does it to-day, but it was phenomenal at that time." Gartel, whose book, "Laurence M. Gartel, A Cybernetic Romance" (Gibbs Smith, 1989, illustrations by Nam June Paik) is considered the first book on an individual's computer-generated art, believes the event was the first time in history digital art was produced at a gallery's opening reception."

~Virginia Miller, Artspace/Virginia Miller Galleries
Miami Art Guide, December 2004

About My Travels
Here's a log of my travels to date.

DISTANCE DETAILS

1. 1st SEGMENT TOUR
NEW DELHI - AGRA - JAIPUR - CHANDIGAR - SHIMLA - AMRISTAR -

DELHI
CHENNAI - DELHI = 2095 KM
DELHI - AGRA = 203 KM
AGRA - JAIPUR = 232 KM
JAIPUR - CHANDIGHAR = 496 KM
CHANDIGHAR - SHIMLA = 119 KM
SHIMA - AMRISTAR = 322 KM
AMRISTAR - DELHI = 447 KM
TOTAL = 3914 KM

2. 2nd SEGMENT TOUR
CHENNAI - BHUBANESHWAR - KOLKATA - DARJILING - VARANASI CHENNAI
CHENNAI - BHUBANESHWAR = 1235 KM
BHUBANESHWAR - KOLKATA = 441 KM
KOLKATA - =
DARJILING - VARNASI = 1279 KM



3. 3rd SEGMENT TOUR
CHENNAI - MUMBAI - GOA - BANGALORE - MYSORE - CHENNAI
CHENNAI - MUMBAI = 1329 KM
MUMBAI - GOA = 593 KM
GOA - BANGALORE = 592 KM
BANGALORE - MYSORE = 139 KM
MYSORE - CHENNAI = 470 KM
TOTAL = 3060 KM

4. 4th SEGMENT TOUR
CHENNAI - PONDICHERRY - CHIDAMBARAM - NAGAPPATTINAM

- THANJAVUR - TIRCHY - MADURAI - KANNIYAKUMARI - NAGERCOIL

- THIRUVANNANTHAPURAM - COIMBATORE - UDAGAMANDALAM
- CHENNAI.
CHENNAI - PONDICHERRY = 165 KM
PONDICHERRY - MADURAI = 324 KM
MADURAI - KANNIYAKUMARI = 235 KM
KANNIYAKUMARI - THIRUVANDRAM = 87 KM
THIRUVANDRAM - COIMBATORE= 413 KM
COIMBATORE - OTTY = 90 KM
OTTY - CHENNAI = 610 KM TOTAL 2000 KM

DAYS OF TRAVEL

1st SEGMENT TOUR
NEW DELHI - AGRA - JAIPUR - CHANDIGAR - SHIMLA - AMRISTAR -

DELHI

NEWDELHI - 1 DAY SIGHT SEEING, NIGHT STAY IN DELHI

AGRA - 2nd DAY EARLY MORNING REACHING AGRA
Night starting from Agra.

JAIPUR - 3rd Day morning reaching Jaipur, Night stay in jaipur

CHANDIGAR - 4th Day Morning starting to Chandigar reaching in the
evening, night stay in chandigar.

5th Day morning sight seeing in chandigar, evening starting to
Shimla.

SHIMLA - 5th Day Evening Reaching Shimla night Stay at Shimla

6th Day whole day Sight seeing at shimla, night starting to
Amristar

AMRISTAR - 7th Day morning reaching Amristar Day time reaching
Amristar. Night stay at Amristar.

DELHI - 8th Day Morning Starting from amristar to Delhi Night Stay
at Delhi.



Total Days = 8 Days


2nd SEGMENT TOUR
CHENNAI - BHUBANESHWAR - KOLKATA - DARJEELING - VARANASI CHENNAI

BHUBANESHWAR - 1 st day travel to bhuvaneshwar night travel
2nd day reaching Bhubaneshwar full day in bhubaneshwar
night in Stay
3rd day in Bhubaneshwar night starting to Kolkata
KOLKATA 4th day sight seeing, night stay in kolkata
DARJEELING 5th Day Starting to Darjeeling.
6th night stay at Darjeeling
7th day Sight seeing at Darjeeling.
VARNASI 8 th Day Starting to Varnasi
9th Day Evening Varnasi night Stay at varnasi
10 th Day Sight seeing at varnasi
CHENNAI 11th Day morning Starting to Chennai

Total Days = 11 days


3rd SEGMENT TOUR

CHENNAI - MUMBAI - GOA - BANGALORE - MYSORE - CHENNAI

CHENNAI - 1ST Day starting to Mumbai
2nd day morning reaching Mumbai Day Sight seeing, night stay in
Mumbai.
3rd Day evening Starting from Mumbai to Goa
GOA - 4th morning reaching Goa,
5th Day Night starting from Goa
BANGLORE - 6th Day Morning, reaching Banglore, Night Stay in B’lore
MYSORE - 7th Day early morning starting from b’lore and reaching mysore
8th Day evening starting from Mysore to Chennai.

Total Days = 8 days


4th SEGMENT TOUR

CHENNAI - PONDICHERRY - CHIDAMBARAM - NAGAPPATTINAM

- THANJAVUR - TIRCHY - MADURAI - KANNIYAKUMARI - NAGERCOIL

- THIRUVANNANTHAPURAM - COIMBATORE - UDAGAMANDALAM
- CHENNAI.

PONDICJERRY - 1st Day reaching pondy, full day sight seeing, Night
leaving to Madurai
MADURAI - 2nd Day morning reaching madurai, day sight seeing
madurai, night stay at madurai
- 3rd Day evening starting from madurai
- 4th Day morning reaching madurai
- 5th Day morning leaving maduri
- 5th Day reaching Kanyakumari

KANNIYAKUMARI - 6th Day full day sight seeing
THIRUVANDRAM - 7th Day sight seeing
COIMBATORE - 8th Day morning reaching, Night stay in
Coimbatore
OTTY - 9th Day Morning start to ooty Stay at ooty
CHENNAI - 10th Day Evening Start to Chenai
Total Days = 10 Days

TOTAL DAYS OF TRAVEL FOR ALL THE 4 SEGMENTS= 37 DAYS

Gartel's E-mail
gartel@gate.net

GARTEL MIAMI
http://gartelmiami.50megs.com