Labouret Private Gallery

08/03/2026

07/27/2026

06/17/2026

This is Jules Dalou’s The Stone Breaker (c. 1890), a rare bronze cast by the legendary Susse Frères foundry. Instead of a heroic, mid-swing pose, Dalou captures “the dignity of the pause”—a masterclass in raw focus and mind over matter.

👇 Read the full curator’s exhibition text and the fascinating story behind this piece in the comments below!

05/06/2026

Tom Baril (American 1952)
Chrysler Building Through Window, 1995
Toned gelatin silver print
23 1/4 × 18 3/8 in | 59.1 × 46.7 cm
Limited Edition of 25
Hand-signed by artist, Signed recto mount
Framed 33 14 x 27 1/4 x 1 1/4 in / 84.4 x 69.2 x 3.2 cm

The Formalist Sensualist: Tom Baril’s Transit of Light.
While the Chrysler Building is a titan of New York architecture, in the hands of Tom Baril, it becomes a study of metallic intimacy.
Baril—the legendary master printer for Robert Mapplethorpe—is a “Formalist Sensualist.”
He uses the rigid geometry of the 4x5 view camera to capture formalist lines (the diagonal shadows, the vertical spire) but renders them with a sensualist’s obsession with texture.
The Technique:
This isn’t just a photograph; it’s a silver gelatin artifact. Baril’s mastery lies in his ability to push the chemistry of the print so that the light doesn’t just sit on the paper
—it appears to radiate from within the fibers. Notice the “glow” on the interior wall; that is the result of precise exposure and a deep understanding of silver-rich papers
that few contemporary artists can replicate.
He treats the room not as a location, but as a Camera Obscura—a dark box where the world outside is “reinvented” through a single aperture of light.
MasterPrinter