Jul 31, 2008

Richard Avedon, Photographs 1946 – 2004

Richard Avedon, Sandra Bennett, 12 years, Rocky Ford, Colorado, 1980, from the series In the American West

The exhibition
This exhibition is the first major retrospective of the artist’s work since his death in 2004. After the Louisiana Museum (24 August 2007 to 13 January 2008), it is being presented this summer at the Jeu de Paume Concorde, where it will occupy the entire space. The exhibition brings together 270 works spanning Richard Avedon’s career from 1946 to 2004. There are of course fashion photographs, but above all there are photographs of figures from the worlds of politics, literature, the arts and show business. In Paris, at the initiative of Marta Gili, director of the Jeu de Paume, this selection will be enriched by some forty large-format prints from In the American West, the series produced by Avedon from 1979 to 1984. A book will accompany the exhibition. French edition: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark / éditions du Jeu de Paume, Paris.

Fashion photographer
Richard Avedon started working for Harper’s Bazaar in 1945. He joined Vogue in 1966. His pictures metamorphosed fashion photography, which he found too static and stuffy, by emphasising movement and capturing his models in public spaces such as parks nightclubs and shops. Avedon set out to recreate everyday and social situations, and to give the impression that, as in photojournalism, his photographs were taken spontaneously, on the spur of the moment. After the Second World War the supremacy of New York meant that its fashion photographers were sent over to Paris to photograph the European collections. Avedon regularly photographed the designs of the major Parisian couture houses through to 1984. In the 1960s Avedon went back to the studio and the neutral background in order highlight the beauty and mobility of his subjects.

Portraitist
In parallel to his fashion photographs, Richard Avedon made numerous portraits, radically transforming the codes of genre, as did that other great American photographer, Irving Penn. But Avedon went even further than Penn. He shattered the iconic images of the stars of show business, literature, the arts and the political elite in the United States. His portraits show all the facets of his models’ personality, however great their mastery of the codes of representation. The use of white grounds, the bareness of the compositions, helped to bring a searching psychological dimension to each subject. Generally speaking, Avedon sought to capture the true nature of things rather than to reproduce them superficially. During his photography sessions, he sought out that very special moment when he could capture and set down the psychological intensity emanating from the sitter. For, to photograph someone “meant looking beyond the charm of the face and establishing a relation between the vital presence of the other and his own, that is to say, finding the moment when everything converged and happened.” (Marta Gili, in her preface to the catalogue)

In the American West
“(…) In the American West was the result of a commission from the Amon Carter Museum of Fort Worth, in Texas. From 1979 to 1984, Avedon photographed men and women in the American West, most of them working folk. In the process, he travelled across several states of the Great Plains and the Rockies, paying special attention to specific sites and events such as ranches, coalmines, cattle fairs, oil wells, slaughterhouses, truck stops, modest diners and offices. He photographed the homeless, housewives, cowboys, miners, prisoners and rodeo riders. His strategy was to build up a network of portraits, weaving a series of psychological, sociological, physical and familial connections between these individuals who had never met. All the photos in this series were taken in broad daylight and outdoors, looking for a certain quality of shadow, against a simple white paper backdrop hung on the side of a truck. The uncompromising photographs that resulted caused quite a controversy when they were first shown in Texas because of Avedon’s “demystifying” vision of that Promised Land, the American West, that land of pioneers and conquerors.” (Marta Gili, from the preface to the catalogue)

Photojournalist
Richard Avedon put his talent as a photographer at the service of the social causes and political evens that shook American society in the 1960s and 70s. He made several reports on the Civil Rights movements in the South (1963), the Ku Klux Klan, and psychiatric hospitals. A pacifist, he photographed hippies demonstrating against the Vietnam War in 1969, and travelled to the country in 1971 to make portraits of the army leaders and of napalm victims. For the French magazine Égoïste he covered the meeting of East and West Berliners at the Brandenburg Gates on 31 December 1989 and 1 January 1990, less than two months after the fall of the Wall.


Biography

1923
Born, New York City.

1929-41
Attended P.S. 6, De Witt Clinton High School, and Columbia University.

1937-40
Co-editor, with James Baldwin, of The Magpie, De Witt Clinton High School literary magazine.

1942-44
Served in the U.S. Merchant Marines.

1944-50
Studied with Alexey Brodovitch at The Design Laboratory, New School for Social Research, New York City.

1945-65
Staff photographer for Harper’s Bazaar.

1947-84
Photographed the French Collections in Paris.

1949-50
Theatre Arts, editor and photographer.

1950
Art Directors Club, New York, Highest Achievement award.

1957
Visual consultant for the film Funny Face, directed by Stanley Donen, with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn, based on Avedon’s career.

1958
Popular Photography magazine, One of the World’s Ten Greatest Photographers.

1959
Publication: OBSERVATIONS, photographs by Richard Avedon, text by Truman Capote, designed by Alexey Brodovitch. Simon and Schuster 1959.

1962
Exhibition: “Richard Avedon”, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C.

1963
Photographed the Civil Rights Movement in America.

1964
Publication: NOTHING PERSONAL, photographs by Richard Avedon, text by James Baldwin, design by Marvin Israel. Atheneum 1964.

1966-90
Staff photographer for Vogue.

1967
Conducted Master Class in Photography at the Avedon Studio.

1969
Photographed the Anti-War Movement across America.

1970
Exhibition: “Richard Avedon”, portrait retrospective 1945-1970 at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

1971
Photographed in Vietnam.

1973
Publication: ALICE IN WONDERLAND: THE FORMING OF A COMPANY AND THE MAKING OF A PLAY, photographs by Richard Avedon, text by Doon Arbus, design by Ruth Ansel. E.P. Dutton 1973.

1974
Exhibition: “Jacob Israel Avedon”, portraits of the photographer’s father, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

1976
Publication: PORTRAITS, photographs by Richard Avedon, introduction by Harold Rosenberg. Farrar, Straus & Giroux 1976
Publication: "THE FAMILY", Rolling Stone, October 21, special Bicentennial issue, photographed during the 1976 election campaign season.

1978
Exhibition: “Avedon: Photographs 1947-1977”, fashion retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Publication: AVEDON: PHOTOGRAPHS 1947-1977 by Richard Avedon, essay by Harold Brodkey. Farrar, Straus & Giroux 1978.

1980
Exhibition: “Avedon: 1946-1980”, portraits, fashion, reportage, University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA.

1985
Exhibition: “In the American West”, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.
Publication: IN THE AMERICAN WEST 1979-1984, photographs by Richard Avedon. Began working for the French publication Egoïste. American Society of Magazine Photographers, Photographer of the Year.

1989 Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), Lifetime Achievement Award.
Royal College of Art, London, Honorary Doctorate.

1991
Installation “Brandenburg Gate, East Berlin, New Year’s Eve, December 31,1989 - January 1, 1990” at the Carnegie International 1991, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation International Photography Prize.

1992
First staff photographer for The New Yorker.

1993
International Center of Photography Master of Photography Award.
Kenyon College, Ohio, Honorary Doctorate.
Publication: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY RICHARD AVEDON, photographs by Richard Avedon, design by Mary Shanaham. Random House 1993.

1994
Exhibition and exhibition catalogue: “Richard Avedon Evidence 1944-1994”, retrospective, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Parsons School of Design, New York, Honorary Doctorate.
EVIDENCE is awarded the Prix Nadar by the Bibliotheque Nationale for the best photographic book of 1994.
Publication: EVIDENCE: 1944-1994, photographs by Richard Avedon with essays by Jane Livingston and Adam Gropnik, design by Mary Shanaham. Random House 1994.

1995
American Masters Documentary, “Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light”, produced for PBS, directed by Helen Whitney for PBS 1995.

1998
The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts.

1999
Publication: AVEDON THE SIXTIES, Richard Avedon and Doon Arbus, design by Ruth Ansel and Gregory Wakabayashi. Random House 1999.
Exhibition “Richard Avedon Early Portraits”, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

2000
Exhibition “About Faces”, including Richard Avedon portraiture, Fraenkel Gallery San Francisco. Deutsches Centrum für Photographie, Berlin Photography Prize 2000.

2001
Exhibition “Richard Avedon: Made in France”, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.
Publication: RICHARD AVEDON: MADE IN FRANCE, essay by Judith Thurman, design by Mary Shanahan and Gregory Wakabayashi, Fraenkel Gallery, 2001.

2002
Exhibition: “Richard Avedon Portraits”, portrait retrospective, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, curated by Maria Morris Hambourg & Mia Fineman.
Publication: RICHARD AVEDON PORTRAITS, photographs by Richard Avedon, essay by Maria Morris Hambourg and Mia Fineman, essay by Richard Avedon, foreword by Philippe de Montebello, design by Mary Shanahan. MMA and Harry Abrams 2002.

2003
Exhibition: “Richard Avedon”, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.
Arts & Business Council, Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Visual Arts.
Americans for the Arts, National Arts Award: Lifetime Achievement.

2004
Dies, 1 October, San Antonio, Texas, while on assignment for The New Yorker.

2005
The Richard Avedon Foundation established.
Publication: WOMAN IN THE MIRROR, photographs by Richard Avedon with an essay by Anne Hollander, design by Mary Shanahan. Harry Abrams 2005.


Richard Avedon. Photographs 1946 – 2004
– 28 September 2008

Site Concorde
Jeu de Paume
1, place de la Concorde
75008 Paris
métro Concorde
bus : 24, 42, 72, 73, 84, 94
information: 01 47 03 12 50

Access through the Tuileries gardens, steps up from Rue de Rivoli.
Disabled access by the main garden entrance on Place de la Concorde, then up ramp on left. Building equipped for disabled visitors.

Opening Hours
Tuesday: 12:00 - 21:00
Wednesday - Friday: 12:00 - 19:00
Saturday and Sunday: 10:00 - 19:00
Closed Monday

Admission: 7 €
Concessions: 4 €

posted by Photography Collection at 12:59 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Richard Avedon, True Artist

Richard Avedon, Suzy Parker and Robin Tattersall, robe de Dior, Place de la Concorde, Paris, 1956. © 2008 the Richard Avedon Foundation

The exhibition “Photography 1946-2004” is showing around 200 of Richard Avedon’s photographs: all the way from the early ones of the forties, when he travelled to Rome and Sicily just after World War II and photographed the street scenes there, through the glamorous fashion world of the fifties in Paris, to the more psychological portraits of literati, actors, musicians and artists. A critic from The New Republic once wrote of an exhibition of Avedon’s works: “Avedon puts in too much and pushes too hard. His work goes too many places” – but regardless of quantity or dating, there’s one common denominator – the portrait. Whether Avedon photographed the street entertainer Zazi in the streets of Rome in 1946, Marilyn Monroe in 1957, Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen in 1958, Veruschka in clothes designed by Kimberly in 1967 or the singer Björk in 2004, it is portraits he creates; not reportage, snapshots, fashion photography, but portraits. Thoughtful portraits, frozen elements of a performance, testifying to empathy and shared responsibility. The retrospective character of the exhibition makes this observation not only possible but inevitable: the whole multi-faceted œuvre can be circumscribed by one artistic arc that is about openness and complexity, lies and flattery in the portrait tradition.
Along with Irving Penn, Avedon changed portrait photography in the twentieth century. Penn is the last exponent of the aristocratic concept in photography: he is considerate and attentive in his pictures where Avedon is radical and brutal. Avedon ranges wide and his photographs exhibit a visible duality: they are photographs taken by a strong, complex personality, a photographer who possesses great humanity – and cold-bloodedness. Avedon tries to bring out more facets rather than just to reproduce his sitters from an arbitrary point of view; as when Picasso works for example with the portrait of Gertrude Stein. Like Picasso, Avedon is a co-creator – not just an observer. The photograph is by nature ‘truthful’, but Avedon shows that the photograph can show or reveal much more than the superficial truth. (…)

The ideal – Martin Munkacsi
Avedon started off as a fashion photographer, and with his keen eye he soon transformed the rather static and monotonous fashion photograph into something living and ground-breaking for the period. Inspired by Martin Munkacsi, he found new ways to give expression to the clothes; the models were no longer just clothes-racks, but living people, even personalities. At the age of just 11 Avedon had covered walls and ceiling with pictures he liked, including photographs by Martin Munkacsi. He regularly saw the magazines Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Vanity Fair, to which his parents subscribed, and it was in one of these magazines that Avedon first got to know about the Hungarian photographer who had revolutionized fashion photography, literally by getting the models to move. This new vitality that movement expressed – unlike the traditional static posing – fascinated Avedon and became important to his photography. Avedon took Munkacsi’s pioneering work further and to the movement he added soul, emotion, strengths and weaknesses. (…)

New York Life
Some of the early photographs in the exhibition New York Life, 1949, were commissioned by the magazine Life, which invited him in 1949 to photograph life in New York for a whole issue of the magazine. He considered this more reportage-oriented job interesting, accepted an advance of $25,000 and went around the various neighbourhoods of the city: Harlem, Central Park, the El stations. With his Rolleiflex he now spent six months taking a wealth of pictures. But when he had to hand in the material to Life he had second thoughts and could not bear to hand over what he himself felt was an infringement of the aesthetic territory of others. He could not see himself in the role of the photojournalist where he ‘stole’ pictures without asking the permission of the subjects. Even less could he submit the material to an editor who, without the necessary ethics and respect, would design a layout with which Avedon would not feel comfortable. The end of the story was that Avedon gave the advance back to Life and kept all his negatives and contact prints. Not until 1992 – more than forty years later – did he take them out and use some of them in his book An Autobiography, which appeared the next year. It is fantastic to view and read these photographs, which are in many ways documentary and point forward to the reportages he created later, for example on New Year’s Eve 1989 at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. But while they are reportage, they are at the same time portraits: the focus is often on one face. Everything else becomes secondary. Avedon filters all that is heavy and dark out of the pictures, and what remains is a focal point. (…)

Paris – the citadel of haute-couture
In 1946 Avedon went to Paris – city of cities and city of fashion. But the war had left its mark, and the image of the city as the hottest centre of haute couture had to be rebuilt. Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue plunged undaunted into post-war fashion. The strategy of the fashion magazines was to perpetuate the glamour from before the war. When Avedon arrived in Paris the models were shown as Art-Deco-inspired statues – static, like beautiful clothes-horses with ‘creations’ on them. But with Avedon’s photographs life and movement were breathed into the models, and thus into the whole experience of the picture. The photograph of the famous model Dovima, posing in sawdust and hay among elephants in an haute-couture creation is revolutionary. The very setting was ground-breaking in 1948. The contrasts in the composition and expression of the picture are sharply pointed up: the elephant skin is raw, wrinkled and rough, and between them the heavy animals have a beautiful woman, slender and straight and smooth-skinned as the Queen of the Nile. Avedon doesn’t only photograph posing models – he creates an image. That makes all the difference. (…)

From non-serious to serious photography
(…) Avedon was there and got it right at just the right moment. There was great interest in Avedon’s photographs, which had graced magazine covers, and for more than twenty years were an important part of the leading international fashion magazines; but the reception of his series In the American West was to be quite different and crucial. If it had not been clear before, it now became clear, even to the more ponderously moving segment of the critical establishment and the institutions, that this was a man with an œuvre and a project that could not be meaningfully separated from the history of art, if one still wanted to have a strong concept of such a thing. From then on the exhibition activity took hold and gathered speed in earnest.

In the American West
It isn’t about the West. I could have done them anywhere in the world. The portraits are about people – all my work is – forget the West. The work is called “In the American West”, not “The American West”. (Isthmus, Feb. 19, 1988, Janus Rhem) Observation as a phenomenon is also the pivot for Avedon in the series In the American West (1980-85), and here his portraiture captures brand new qualities. It is a series of pictures where the complexity is particularly evident: a number of life-size portraits of Americans from the West. Not the glamour of Hollywood or the perpetually sun-drenched types of California, but people who live in the countryside in Texas, in small spots more or less isolated from the surrounding world. (…)
Avedon not only observes these people and photographs them, he is a again a co-creator. He photographs the farm hand, the petty criminal, the waitress, the gas station attendant... outside the milieu of which they are normally a part. In that sense he does a ‘reverse Arnold Newman’: they are all photographed with a neutral, white background, and always in the shade to prevent the sunlight making shadows, highlighting something in particular and determining what the viewer is to focus on in the photograph. Avedon wants flat faces against a white background. There are few props, and the portraits appear both sober and naked. (…) “These were people with an extraordinary appearance. This is a class that had not been described or observed at all. The white background isolates the subject from itself and permits you to explore the geography of the face; the unexplored continents in the human face.” (Denver Post, October 1985)

After the Fact....
Photography has a lot to do with being in the right place at the right time. Richard Avedon was often that, and in several senses. He did not live isolated in the fashion or portrait world, but was quick on the draw when something was happening; in his own way he entered the eye of the hurricane so he could capture with his camera some of the people there who – perhaps involuntarily – were stranded amidst the harsh realities of society. For example he was on the streets of New York that morning in 1963 when the Kennedy assassination was reported; he travelled with his camera to Vietnam in 1971, participated in demonstrations, covered election campaigns – as in 1976, when he was asked by the magazine Rolling Stone to cover America’s bicentennial presidential election. Instead of only photographing the most prominent politicians, he chose to portray the while circle around the political leadership, which resulted in 73 photographs that he called The Family. He had no particular political affinities or relationships of any kind with these people, and control can in general be said to be a code word for his work, so he let these people appear as they themselves wanted. Avedon didn’t choose how they were to pose, what clothes they should wear, etc., but let them present themselves just as they wished.
A quite epoch-making event he participated in was New Year’s Eve 1989 in Berlin. In a series of photographs he registered the whole spectrum of emotions that mixed in with the music and fireworks among the many thousands of people who in that year, 1989, when East Germany opened the borders between the parts of the divided city, celebrated New Year around the Brandenburg Gate. The fall of the Berlin Wall. The demolition had begun just two months before, but there was still so much left of the Wall that this hated landmark was like a magnet for the Berliners themselves and others who had travelled there on this special evening. In the photographs he captured the Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, punks, housewives, young and old, homeless and well-heeled, and the whole of vulnerable mankind unfolded explosively in picture after picture – laughter, tears, shouting, all the emotions were caught by his unerring eye and manifested him as the photographer who was constantly seeking new limits – both on the surface and beneath it.

Richard Avedon. True artist, Helle Crenzien, extracts from the catalogue

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Jul 29, 2008

Life in Afghanistan

A Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) uses slides to show the local people that the Dutch troops have come with good intentions. The Uruzgan Task Force was launched on 1 August 2006 with the aim of maintaining security and starting reconstruction work in the area, together with the local population. The PRT is a special military unit that helps with the reconstruction of the country. Photos: Hans Stakelbeek

A collection of images of everyday life in Afghanistan will be displayed for the first time in Great Britain in an exhibition starting tomorrow. Out of the Dust – Life in Afghanistan features images by Dutch photographer Hans Stakelbeek. The exhibition runs from 30 July-31 August 2008 at PM Gallery, the extension to architect Sir John Soane’s home, Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing, west London. In 2007, Hans Stakelbeek was commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to document the reconstruction of Afghanistan during ongoing efforts to restore peace and stability to the country. Stakelbeek made four trips last year, shooting in Kabul and Uruzgan, as well as other remote areas. As the project developed, Stakelbeek became interested in capturing the stories of the people he came to know, as well as the reconstruction efforts required by his official posting.

The exhibition presents a set of images that pays tribute to the determination of the Afghan people to survive and live as normally as possible through the upheaval, building homes, going to school and working and playing in testing and frightening times. Stakelbeek’s own written commentary reveals the stories within each photograph. The often surprising collection gives a rare view of daily life in Afghanistan without a military slant. The exhibition is an up-to-date presentation of current life and an opportunity to see how the country is changing, how the reconstruction is progressing and to witness the admirable perseverance of ordinary people in an extraordinary situation.

Visitor Information
Exhibition Dates: 30 July-31 August 2008. Admission is free to all visitors
Opening Times: Tuesday-Friday & Sunday 1-5pm; Saturday 11am-5pm
Special free exhibition tour with Hans Stakelbeek: – 2pm, Saturday 30 August
For further information www.ealing.gov.uk/pmgalleryandhouse.
PM Gallery & Pitzhanger Manor, Walpole Park, Mattock Lane, Ealing, London, W5 5EQ
Travel: Trains & tube (via Central or District Lines) to Ealing Broadway. Buses 207, 65 & 83.







posted by Photography Collection at 7:40 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Icon and Gender

The exhibit entitled Female Trouble at the Pinakothek of Modern Art in Munich confronts the portrayal of the feminine in photography, the social constructs of gender roles and of transgenders. Photographers such as Cindy Sherman or Daniela Rossell parody images of the feminine, grotesque faces artificially distorted by trends of our consumer culture and by fads, images preferring facades to natural beauty. Long live the image of the human! Who cares about the person any more? The classic example for this type of transformation from person to a product designed for economic performance was Norma Jean. As Marilyn Monroe, she preferred death to the contradictions of her image, and she was immortalized by the image she left behind. Other than these contradictions, what could explain the fascination of Bert Stern's "Last Sitting" (1962) for Vogue Magazine, which he re-staged with Lindsey Lohan for New York Magazine , February 18, 2008. Marilyn Monroe, an icon of modernism, loathed her reduction to clichés and wanted to portray character roles. We can merely sense the reason for her tormented final years, only her friends know Norma Jean.
Marilyn Monroe was resurrected in a photo shoot featuring Lindsay Lohan. To be sure, Lohan as an image of herself is competing with numerous other images of A- and B- list celebrities dominating the hydra of entertainment media. In that she differs from Marilyn Monroe in spite of the fact that both created headlines with their excesses involving drugs and alcohol. In the end, Marilyn fell victim to her own story and to a merciless industry which produces images of human beings. Lohan wants to get a grip on her live and survive within this industry. She won’t become an icon.

posted by Photography Collection at 3:13 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Jul 26, 2008

Barbican Art Gallery exhibits Photos from Mexican Suitcases in Autumn

The British Journal of Photography reports that the Barbican Art Gallery, London, is going to exhibit some previously unseen photographs of Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David Seymour in autumn. So the recently discovered three "Mexican Suitcases" of Robert Capa are going to reveal at least some of their secrets. It is impossible to describe the history of the luggage completely, because its traces are lost in the Second World War confusion. Capa fled from Paris after the Nazis have occupied the city and darkroom manager, Imre Weisz, apparently brought the negatives to Marseille before being arrested and deported to Algiers. What happened next to them is a mystery. They ended up in the hands of Mexican general, Francisco Aguilar Gonzales. Finally the International Center of Photography (ICP), New York, founded by Robert Capas brother Cornell negotiated with the officer concerning the rights and after all they were transferred to the Capa estate. Robert Capa has kept more than 3500 negatives of David Seymour and himself as well as some of Gerda Taro his girlfriend and companion during the Spanish Civil War in the suitcases.
One fifth of the photos have been scanned at the ICP. "The suitcase holds major stories from all three photographers," says a spokesman. Experts have found Seymour's images of the Basque clergy taken in January 1937, and of refugees in Barcelona in late 1936. Taro's images depict General Lukacs' funeral in June 1937. As for Capa, the ICP has found photos from March 1939 of French internment camps for Republican refugees. "We're hoping to get some of the works from the Mexican Suitcase, says a spokeswoman of the Barbican Art Gallery. "We don't know how much and what we will get yet. As they are still working on the suitcases, we will see what is available and ready to be used." The exhibition in London will be the first to present photos from the suitcases from 17 October until 25 january 2009

What has been discovered so far?

By David Seymour
The woman nursing a baby in Estremadura, May 1936
Images of the Basque clergy, January 1937
Refugees in Barcelona, late 1936.

By Gerda Taro
The funeral of General Lukacs, June 1937
La Granjuela, June 1937
Valencia, March 1937
Brunete, July 1937

By Robert Capa
Teruel, December 1937-January 1938
Rio Segre, November 1938
Barcelona, January 1939
French internment camps, March 1939

posted by Photography Collection at 10:57 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Jul 25, 2008

Parrworld

Martin Parr, Dubai, The Cartier International Dubai Polo Challenge, 2007, 51 x 61 cm, Inkjet Print on Aluminium

With this exhibition the Haus der Kunst continues its series, first launched in 2003, of presenting photographic collections. After ’Partners’, which showed works from the Canadian Ydessa endeles’s collection, ’Occupying Space’, with works from the Generali Foundation and ’Der Körper der Photographie’ (The Body of Photography), which exhibited the Herzog Collection, Martin Parr’s own collections will be brought together for the first time. Parr is one of the most dynamic contemporary photographers. Regarded as a satirist of contemporary life, he has published more than thirty books, presented his works in countless solo and group exhibitions and is represented in outstanding national and international art collections. The fact that Parr himself is a collector is not generally known. ’Parrworld’ places the artist’s photographs in a dialogue with his collections, revealing cross-references and connections between these. Parr, who is a member of the legendary photography agency Magnum, also views photography as an act of collecting. In ’Parrworld’ his new work series ’Luxury’ will be presented along with his collections of photography books, postcards, objects and photographs by British and international artists. Together these form a cabinet of media curiosities, which simultaneously express the psyche of its creator. By ironically juggling the cliché of the bizarre British collector of different kinds of objects, Parr exposes another facet of his personality. His fascination with the trite and his preference for exceptions to rules, as well as for the unusual and peculiar, lend his collections their individual character. ’Parrworld’ was developed in close collaboration with the photographer and includes five of his collections:

Postcards
The works from this collection could almost describe an entire century. At a time when daily newspapers were not technically able to print photographs there was already a great demand for images that depicted current events. At the end of the 19th century, interest in the sensational led to the usage of the previously practised process of wood and copperplate engravings as photographic picture postcards, which served as a particularly prompt form of reporting and which were based on the method’s quick and inexpensive method of production. A collection of these news images is the foundation of this postcard collection that Parr began to compile thirty years ago. Further focuses are studio portraits, images by the photographers Warner Gothard and John Hinde, vacation postcards and curiosities, such as ’boring postcards’ depicting motorways, prefabricated buildings and interiors. This collection is an example of the changing way this simple, affordable and popular form of communication has been used. The postcards present their motifs in a condensed form, as an ideal, which is, of course, a construction by the
photographer.

Objects
United in this collection are different types of objects, including items from the Soviet ’Sputnik era’, Maggie Thatcher’s reign, the pop band the Spice Girls’ and from the attacks of 9/11, all of which represent events that have shaped our collective memory because of their presence in the media where photography plays a fundamental role. There is not a single everyday object or curiosity that has not been checked by Parr for its significance as a possible symbol for a certain zeitgeist. Objects from various sources are arranged thematically by the artist and can thus be read in a new manner: "I am very attracted to objects, which are ephemeral. Their significance and cultural context change as the world moves on. Many of these objects are associated with people or events that are locked into the glories of a certain time and place. When these glories fade, the object takes on a certain resonance that is the driving force of this collection".

Photography Books
Parr’s unique collection of national and international books on photography addresses the medium of photography and the printed image. The collection shows the history of photography books based on a selection of particularly important or interestingly designed publications, from icons in book art to publications by lesser-known publishing houses. All of photography’s fields of application, from advertising to propaganda, from contract photography to artistic self-expression in a self-designed book, are presented here. Following Parr and Garry Badger’s publication of their two volumes of ’The Photobook ? A History’, in 2004 and 2006 respectively, these photography books have become sought after collector’s items. Also included in this section are book-dummies; book designs created by the artists for their publications, displayed here together with several original photographs.

Photography Collections
Parr’s interest in social themes is also reflected in his collections of photographs, which are presented in a British and an international section. The first section is comprised of the most extensive private collection in Great Britain today. Here a selection of socialdocumentary positions with works from the 70s and 80s by artists such as Tony Ray- Jones, Chris Killip and Graham Smith can be seen. Artists such as Keith Arnatt, Mark Neville, Jem Southam and Tom Wood represent contemporary British photography. The international part of this collection is represented by photographs that have influenced Parr or with which he has built up a personal relationship: images by such masters as Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand and William Eggleston are juxtaposed with works by friends including John Gossage and Gilles Peress. Another focus is made up of works by Japanese photographers, who are relatively unknown in Germany, such as Osamu Kanemura, Kohei Yoshiyuki and Rinko Kawauchi.

Luxury
In this section of ’Parrworld’ the new series ’Luxury’ by the much-acclaimed photographer will be exhibited for the first time. The series is a depiction of wealth in the western world, which Parr considers to be just as problematic as poverty: "We are all too wealthy for our own good". Martin Parr became well-known in the early 80s with the publication of his book ’Bad Weather’, the subject of which was Great Britain’s typical weather. His black and white photographs are characterised by a particular humour. The artist’s photographs, however, are not an example of the ’smile-shutter camera’, nor do they poke fun at the expense of others. When the director Wim Wenders says that each camera photographs in two directions, then this fact is particularly true for Martin Parr and it is even part of the credibility of his work. The photographer himself even stresses that his works can be seen as a contemporary view of society, but also as a kind of self-portrait. In the 80s Parr switched to colour photography and addressed issues of recreational activity, consumerism, mass tourism, mobility and communication in extensive series. Parr examines national characteristics, their global levelling and international phenomena, for their validity as symbols for the future understanding of our cultural civilizations. It hence becomes possible for us to unite an analysis of visible signs of globalisation with unusual visual experiences. The individual is juxtaposed with the universal, contradictions remain unresolved, distinctiveness is accepted and the bizarre valued.
Parr refers to the power of omnipresent images in the media and advertising as ’propaganda’. He contradicts this with criticism, temptation and humour. Many of his images appear exaggerated, even absurd in their peculiar motifs, garish colours andcomplex perspectives. His photographs are original and entertaining, accessible and intelligible. For his new series ’Luxury’, Martin Parr travelled to international cities such as Dubai, Durban and Moscow, photographing fashion shows, art and luxury products fairs and horse races, as well as Munich’s Oktoberfest. Modesty is not necessarily a pronounced characteristic of the representatives of the international jet setter scene, who proudly present the insignia of new money and superficial growth. Using the means of the grotesque, Parr now uncompromisingly focuses his attention on the phenomenon of a new international upper class following his earlier projects on the working and middle classes.

Two books accompany the show:

Objects by Martin Parr, with an introduction by Martin Parr; Chris Boot Ltd; 176 pages, 500 objects illustrated,ISBN 978-1-905712-08-3

Postcards by Martin Parr, with an essay by Thomas Weski; Chris Boot Ltd; 336 pages, 750 colour postcard reproductions,ISBN 978-1-905712-10-6

After its presentation in the Haus der Kunst the exhibition will be on view at the Graphic Design Museum Beyerd Breda in the Netherlands. Additional international venues will follow.

Parrworld
Haus der Kunst
Prinzregentenstrasse 1, Munich
- 17 August

Opening Hours
Mon - Sun 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Thur 10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.

posted by Photography Collection at 8:49 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Jul 23, 2008

Female Trouble

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #216, 1988 - 90, from the series History Portraits, Old Masters. Courtesy Monika Sprüth, Philomene Magers, Cologne, Munich, London

Since the invention of photography more than 170 years ago it has been largely women who have used this technical medium to project themselves through role playing and masquerading. As well as the experimental urge to constantly recreate ones ego, the camera has also served as a means of calling into question clichés of female representation. Playing with the image of the eternally feminine was and remains a discourse with gender identity, its social and political definitions and reaching beyond them. The exhibition focuses on contemporary women artists such as Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Monica Bnvicini and Pippilotta Rist, who with the aid of photography and video art investigate the female image. The artists explore the question of what image patterns the media age employs for portraying femininity and how these images determine perceptions of women. At the same time, they deconstruct by humorous, ironic and provocative means the traditional iconography of portraying women in the Western world and develop alternative images that postulate new forms of representation, which are at times aggressive and strident, at others subtle and devious. Interest in the discourse with female imagery is not an exclusively post-modern issue. As far back as the 19th and early 20th century,
women such as Countess Castiglione, the Surrealist Claude Cahun and female artists of the avant-garde discovered photography as a means of experiencing their ego in many different roles and exposing stereotype projections of femininity through masquerading. Review of
history shows how contemporary women artists have followed on from their predecessors by continually returning to individual motifs and themes and extending and varying them over generations.
The exhibition Female Trouble provides for the first time in the German-speaking area an overview of the changing nature of the female image in the history of photography and video art. The approach is not encyclopaedic; instead, it concentrates on those female and male artists whose work was/is innovative and at the same time serves as a model for others. In doing so, the artistic discourse with the image of women touches on central issues concerning what basically constitutes identity and on the biological, social, cultural, political and media influences that determine the image of what is female and male.

Artists represented in the exhibition include: Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Pipilotti Rist, Nikki S. Lee, Francesca Woodman, Monica Bonvicini, Tracey Moffat, Björn Melhus, Jürgen Klauke, VALIE EXPORT, Andy Warhol, Urs Lüthi, Marcel Duchamp, ringl + pit, Florence Henri, Marta Astfalck-Vietz, Claude Cahun, Florence Henri, Germaine Krull, Wanda Wulz, Comtesse de Castiglione, Lady Clementina Hawarden, Julia Margaret Cameron.

Female Trouble
Pinakothek der Moderne
Barer Straße 29, Munich
18 July - 26 October
Opening Hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday - Sunday: 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Thursday: 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Monday closed

posted by Photography Collection at 3:49 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Jul 9, 2008

The search goes on

In May, 1997 Sotheby's London auctioned off a stunning private collection of modern photography under the name "Helene Anderson Collection". The world’s best funded private collectors and most prestigious museums competed for the masterpieces offered and paid 100,000 Euro or more for a single photo. Today, more than ten years later, these buyers still do not know whether they are legal owners of their acquisitions or whether they will have to return the precious photos at some point. As early as half a year after the auction the German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, was able to prove that the provenance of the collection was fake. 234 photographs of the major photo avant-garde of the 1920s, among them Man Ray, El Lissitzky, Edward Weston, László Moholy-Nagy, Umbo and Albert Renger-Patzsch, are a part of the international photo collection, which the industrialist Kurt Kirchbach had accumulated from 1929 to 1932.

Controversial Inheritance

The widow of Kurt Kirchbach, Hildegard Kirchbach who died in 1995, had spent the last one and a half years of her life in a nursing home in Basel, Switzerland, headed by Angelika Burdack. Shortly after the death of Mrs. Kirchbach in July of 1995, Angelika Burdach and her husband Hans-Joachim Burdack delivered the photographs in question to Sotheby's in London for an auction and declared them to be the collection of her mother-in-law, whose maiden name had been Helene Anderson. Thus, the “Kirchbach Photo Collection,” the first private collection of international modern photography, changed its name and became the "Helene Anderson Collection," a fictitious collection which to this day appears in newspaper reports, term papers and as provenance data in auction catalogues.The question whether the Burdack’s were legitimate owners of the photographs and if, therefore, a legal transfer of ownership could take place at the London auction, is still pending in court. Pressured by the publication of the true provenance of the collection (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 29, 1998) the Burdack’s declared through a lawyer that Mrs. Kirchbach, shortly before her death, presented 234 photographs to Angelika Burdack, “as an expression of friendship and gratitude” for good care. However, as head of a nursing home and according to her employment contract Angelika Burdack was not allowed to accept gifts of substantial value. And this was not a present of small value: the sales of the photographs in London generated around DM 5.5 Million at the time. Since the Burdack’s were unable to document the giving of the photos or produce witnesses for the acceptance of the gift, Mrs. Kirchbach’s heirs pressed criminal charges against the Burdack’s for wrongful possession and, in addition, initiated civil action for restitution of the auction outcome. So far, it is unclear as to who is lawfully entitled to bring a civil action against the Burdack’s. This is due to the fact that the inheritance question has not been resolved after twelve years of litigation. Moreover, this dispute does not only involve financial assets and real estate, but a significant art collection whose principal items are paintings by Franz Marc and Ferdinand Hodler, watercolour paintings by Emil Nolde, and an omnibus collection of graphic art by Lovis Corinth.

The Act of Disposal Has Been Contested

Three different parties have laid claim to this inheritance. Werner Stauffacher, a commercial lawyer from Zurich, who consulted Mrs. Kirchbach during the last three years of her life, had claimed the inheritance immediately after her death. As proof he referred to a handwritten “last will and testament” of Hildegard Kirchbach dated December 1993, the month in which she had been brought to the Basel nursing home after she was severely injured in her flat. Since 1995, the validity of this will has been contested by the Munich industrialist Eckbert von Bohlen and Halbach who relies on a notarized will from 1987, which contains the request to donate the entire art collection, including the photo collection, to the Basel Art Museum. Stauffacher was declared "unworthy of the inheritance" on February 2, 2006 by the Swiss Federal Court in Lausanne because he left, “the deceased, who was his client under the false impression that his efforts were based on genuine friendship and affection, without making clear to her that he was simply interested in payment of the lawyer's fee charged by him” (Judgments 5C.121 / in 2005 and 5P.161/in 2005). After the ruling of the court of ultimate resort, the hopes of the buyers of the “Helene Anderson Collection” and the international press were shattered that the question whether the Burdack’s were legal owners or whether the auction had to be annulled would be resolved.

Ruling in Autumn

Stauffacher found a way to appeal the federal court ruling; however, the final verdict is still pending. The parties expect it to be announced at the end of autumn this year. Yet, the legal dispute will not be over by that time. Even if the federal court ruling from February 2006, which sided with the action brought by Bohlen and Halbach, should be confirmed, Stauffacher will be unable to take possession of the inheritance: a niece of Mrs. Kirchbach who is living in Germany and Spain has since appeared. She also claimed the inheritance and filed an action against von Bohlen and Halbach. This litigation will not be completed until a few years.Whether the " Kirchbach Photo Collection“ will arrive in the Basel Art Museum as the collector and his widow according to several wills intended, is still written in the stars. As long as the question of who is the lawful heir is not going to be resolved, the lawsuits pending against the Burdack’s in Basel are suspended. According to newspaper reports, they left Germany and disappeared abroad. While the litigation involving the Kirchbach inheritance is dragging on, our knowledge of the parts constituting the international “Kirchbach Photo Collection,“ the most significant photo collection of modernity, has considerably improved. In 2005, ten photographs that were part of an auction at the Villa Grisebach in Berlin clearly came from the Kirchbach collection.Among them were photographs of Hugo Erfurth, Andreas Feininger, Albrecht Renger-Patzsch, Fritz Henle, Hein Gorny, Charlotte Rudolph and other photographers, who are no longer famous. As with the London omnibus collection, the photographs were large-size prints from 1929 to 1932, excellently preserved. Though different from the London omnibus collection, in which most of the photographs had been detached from the card mount, the photos from the Villa Grisebach were still in the original frames of the Kirchbach collection complete with stamped inventory numbers as well as typed labels with the title, the photographer, and the artist’s hometown. According to the previous owner, he had acquired the photos during the 1970s after seeing an advertisement in the Saxon newspaper, "Wochenblatt," which had been placed by an elderly lady living in the vicinity of Dresden. Even more spectacular is an omnibus collection of fourteen photographs, which was auctioned off in May with Christie's in London under the title "Springefeld Collection.” The handwritten inventory numbers at the backs of the photos and traces of other evidence point to the fact that these photographs too were once part of the "Kurt Kirchbach Collection,” The inventory numbers match precisely the gaps in the inventory reconstructed from the better known omnibus collection. In this respect, the name chosen by Christie’s, "Springefeld Collection", is misleading because these photos were not collected by Springefeld, but acquired by him as part of an already complete collection. The auctioned photos represent a selection of a larger group of 54 photographs that were submitted by the heirs of the graphic artist Fritz Springefeld who died in Dresden in 2005.The remaining 40 photos of this omnibus collection, among them a complete series of photographs by Hugo Erfurth, Ewald Hoinkis, and Willy Zielke along with single prints by Umbo, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Andreas Feininger and Hans Finsler are earmarked for sale at the November auction at Christie's. According to a handwritten statement Springefeld, born in Leipzig in 1914 and one of the well-known industrial designers in the GDR in the 1950s and 1960s, had acquired the portfolio at an auction at the Social Security Administration Dresden for 15 Deutsch Mark in 1949.

Public Property of the GDR

Evidently, in 1948 and 1949 the Social Security Administration Dresden organised auctions of objects distrained upon from dilatory contribution payers as well as of furnishings and collection objects found in the houses and villas of expropriated owners who had fled to West Germany. Kirchbach’s villa in Dresden-Loschwitz, together with his factories had already been expropriated by the Soviets in 1945. He had fled to West Germany as well. After the villa had been the lodging of high Soviet officers till 1947, it became state property in 1948, at the same time as the GDR was founded. The Saxon Prime Minister Max Seydewitz had already lived in this building since 1947.From 1953 to 1957 it was used as a guest house by the GDR government. It is entirely possible that parts of the photo collection were still in the villa in 1948 and, after it had been appropriated by GDR officials, was liquidated at auctions via the Social Security Administration Dresden. Among the photos now auctioned off at Christie's are some of those icons of the modern age of photography which reportedly were, according to reviews from 1932, part of the Kirchbach collection, yet had been absent from the London omnibus volume of 1997: thus, for example three photographs by Florence Henri, a still life by Walter Peterhans who lectured at the state college Bauhaus in Dessau , László Moholy-Nagy’s portrait of fellow Bauhaus professor Oskar Schlemmer depicted on a balcony in Ascona along with two famous artist portraits by Hugo Erfurth: Oskar Kokoschka’s portrait from 1920 and Marc and Bella Chagall’s double portrait from 1923. The reappearance of these icons makes once more clear how much the purchasing criteria of collectors were manipulated by the then influential publications concerning modern photography. The Peterhans’ "Still Life" as well as the photo "Corrugated Roofs" by Brett Weston shown in London appeared in the most influential photo book of the avant-garde at that time, the volume Photo Eye" by Franz Roh and Jan Tschichold, which was published on occasion of the international exhibit „Film and Photo“ in Stuttgart in 1929. Florence Henri’s „Composition with Spools of Thread“ and László Moholy-Nagy’s portrait of Oskar Schlemmer were among the few select photographs depicted in the exhibit catalogue. However, Kirchbach and his adviser Hildebrand Gurlitt, former head of the King-Albert-Museum in Zwickau and later head of the Hamburg Art Association, bought by no means only photos which had already been ennobled by depictions in important publications. Typical for the Kirchbach collection is the side by side of masterpieces by pioneers and unusual photographs by little-known or at the present time completely nameless photographers, representing the new photographic aesthetics.
Unknown photographers

Three photos of this kind were offered at Christie's: a remarkably high resolution rendering of drops of water on a windowpane by Willy Zielke, a photo of shoes enclosed by wave foam by Rudolf Kessler, made stunning because of its perspective as well as the close up of soap suds by an absolutely unknown photographer called Johann Graf. Such photographs make clear that the original spectrum of photographic masterstrokes by far surpassed the canon established today. It is the unorthodox pleasure of a collector prompted not by famous names but by exciting pictures, which makes Kirchbach’s collection an irreplaceable historical document. Christie's mentioned the “Kurt Kirchbach Photo Collection“ as a likely provenance of the photographs in the catalogue, which electrified the community of international collectors, and prices were accordingly high, in most cases double the estimate. Florence Henri's reflecting compositions, Peterhans' "Still Life", Weston’s "Corrugated Roofs" and Erfurth’s portraits cost between 20,000 and 30,000 Euro; Moholy-Nagy’s portrait of Oskar Schlemmer yielded a record high of 45,625 Euro (gross). As a result, the collectors are now ready to pay considerable mark ups, solely for the provenance Kirchbach. Photos, such as by Graf or Kessler that would probably not have yielded more than 1,000 Euro without the Kirchbach provenance, reached 10,000 and 18,600 Euro in London.Of the roughly 600 photographs which were part of the Kirchbach collection in the beginning of 1933 only 300 are known; half of them are still missing. Judging from Kirchbach’s and Gurlitt’s collector strategy one may rightfully assume that there is in this part of the collection also a huge number of photographs which made history. The gaps in the numbering groups which are assigned to individual photographers point to the fact that important photos by Man Ray, Robert Petschow, László Moholy-Nagy and El Lissitzky are still missing. On occasion of the opening of an exhibit of his photos in the Cologne gallery Wilde, the great Hungarian photographer André Kertész revealed in a newspaper interview given in 1982 that the first museums which had acquired his photos were the Berlin Art Library and the Zwickau Museum.However, the King Albert Museum in Zwickau was not collecting any photographs at that time. Rather, its director, Hildebrand Gurlitt, had used the museum letter head to acquire photographs for his friend Kurt Kirchbach. Of the certainly extensive Kertész omnibus volume in the Kirchbach collection to this day no photograph has appeared. The unexpected reemergence of parts of the Kirchbach collection originating in the former GDR from private sales and auctions at Villa Grisebach and Christie's gives rise to the hope that the missing half of the Kurt Kirchbach photo collection might also reappear one of these days. The restoration of the complete collection with its 600 photographs would mean a sensation in the history of photography.

posted by Photography Collection at 6:56 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Jul 2, 2008

Bloomsbury Auctions launches New York Photography Department

Bloomsbury Auctions have launched a new Photographs Department in New York with the appointment of John Cowey as the head of the department and Hannah Hayden as junior specialist. The department is being guided by the auction expert and photography specialist Rick Wester of Rick Wester Fine Art, Inc., who will act as international consultant. Bloomsbury Auctions opened their New York saleroom just eight months ago at 6 West 48th St. near Rockefeller Plaza, and it has already announced significant plans for expansion with the development of new departments in modern and contemporary prints and photography.
John Cowey is an expert in the field of fine art photography and has worked within the photographic art market for the past 15 years. Most recently, Cowey worked as gallery manager at New York City's Edwynn Houk Gallery. His partner at Bloomsbury Auctions, Hannah Hayden, comes from Phillips de Pury & Co., where she managed client development for contemporary art and photographs, in addition to working with catalogues, research and promotion. Wester brings almost 30 years of knowledge and experience in the selling, exhibiting, promoting and appraising of photographs in both the private and public sectors to his new role at Bloomsbury Auctions. His experience includes nine years as the International Director of Photographs at Christie's, Inc. Most recently Wester was the first Worldwide Head of Photographs at Phillips de Pury & Co., and since September 2007 he has been the president and director of his own art services company, Rick Wester Fine Art, Inc. Wester will assist the firm by developing the Bloomsbury photographs departments in New York, London, and Rome. Bloomsbury Auctions will host its inaugural photography sale in New York on October 16-17, 2008. John Cowey and Hannah Hayden are available for valuations and welcome inquiries concerning consignments and sales. The department's phone is +1-212-719-1000, or you can email the department at: photographs@bloomsburyauctions.com .

posted by Photography Collection at 12:10 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Auction Houses raise Buyer's Premium again

The auction giants Christie's and Sotheby's have once again quietly raised their commissions to buyers. It is now 25 percent on the first $50,000 and 20% on the next $1 million. The 12% rate now only kicks in above that mark. It had previously been 12% above the $500,000 mark. Other auction houses have not followed suit yet. Both of these two houses always seem to raise their rates identically at the same time, especially in view of their past history of rate fixing.
Buy-ins (unsold lots) have been increasing steadily at these houses as bidders finally are factoring in these much higher premiums with their bidding. Consignors must also face up to the fact that these higher percentages will also clearly effect the final bids that they receive on the hammer price of their items as the houses take an ever bigger cut of the pie. It now usually makes more financial sense to place work directly with dealers, even at 20-30% commission rates. At the least other houses are now at a 5-12% price point advantage where Christie's and Sotheby's must outperform those houses by at least that much for a consignor to break even.

posted by Photography Collection at 12:03 AM 0 Comments Links to this post