PRESS RELEASE

MARQUEE PROJECTS

Eight Days in Yemen

A Solo Exhibition of Photographs

by Peter Schlesinger

Opening Reception:
Saturday, April 17, 3pm - 6pm

Exhibition:
April 17 - May 16, 2021

MARQUEE PROJECTS is thrilled to announce Eight Days in Yemen, a solo exhibition of photographs by Peter Schlesinger. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday, April 17, from 3pm to 6pm.

In 1976, Peter Schlesinger visited the Yemen Arab Republic, as the northern part of Yemen was then called. Yemen had been closed to foreigners for many years, but the government had recently decided to court external media outlets in the interest of encouraging tourism. Over the course of his eight-day stay, Schlesinger traveled from the capital Sanaa to the northern city of Sa’da, taking hundreds of photographs documenting the country’s landscape, extraordinary architecture, and scenes of daily life. 

During the forty-two years since his visit, Schlesinger has constantly been reminded of the tragedy in Yemen and decided to assemble these images into a book, Eight Days in Yemen, published by Damiani Editore, April, 2021. When Bernard Haykel, a professor at Princeton University and an expert on the Middle East was approached to write an introductory text, he was taken aback by the photographs, as visual documentation of Yemen in the 1970s is extremely rare.

MARQUEE PROJECTS and Schlesinger have curated a selection of these photographs and will exhibit them at the gallery, coinciding with the book’s release. Considering Yemen’s recent history, these photographs are a poignant memento of what once was and what has since been lost.

Peter Schlesinger was born and raised in California. His sculptures and paintings have been exhibited widely and are in the collections of the Parrish Art Museum, The Farnsworth Museum, and Manchester Gallery of Art, England. He currently resides in New York City and Bellport, Long Island, with his partner, the photographer Eric Boman.

For further information, please contact Mark Van Wagner at mark@marqueeprojects.org or call (303) 875-6879.