30/10/12

Exposition I Went, Musée Guimet, 2012-2013



Exposition I Went
Oeuvres du Centre national des arts plastiques
Musée Guimet, Paris
3 octobre 2012 - 28 janvier 2013

Instaurant un dialogue entre une dizaine d’artistes de renommée internationale, d’origine occidentale et asiatique, dont les oeuvres ont été choisies parmi les collections du CNAP et les collections patrimoniales du musée Guimet, l'exposition I Went au musée Guimet à Paris est centrée sur une déambulation méditative. Werner Bischof (photographie ci-dessous), Christian Boltanski, Jean Clareboudt, Philippe De Gobert, Helmut Federle, Marie-Ange Guilleminot (dont l'oeuvre Tsuru, origami, papier, est représentée sur l'affiche de l'exposition reproduite ci-dessus), Hans Hartung, On Kawara, Rei Naito, Pascal Pinaud, Ian Stallard & Patrik Fredrikson et Xavier Veilhan présentent leurs visions et inspirations respectives de l’Asie dans tous les domaines de la création (photographie, design, vidéo, installation, et sculpture...).



WERNER BISCHOFA pleasant sleeping. Island of Kau Sai, 1952
Epreuve gélatino-argentique 40,1 x 50,5 cm
Centre national des arts plastiques
FNAC 03-1243
© Werner Bischof / Magnum Photo / CNAP


Le photojournaliste suisse Werner Bischof (Zurich, 1916-1954, Pérou) rejoint l'agence Magnum en 1949. L'exposition présente quatre de ses photographies réalisées au Japon en 1951 et 1952 qui rendent bien compte de son intérêt pour ce pays et la culture japonaise dont le bouddhisme. Ses photographies sont un parfait exemple du dépassement du débat entre photographie documentaire et photographie d'art.

Les oeuvres présentées, loin de la copie ou du réemploi, témoignent d’une relecture des traditions asiatiques avec toujours la même fascination pour le sacré, l’absolu, les philosophies, les religions et les voyages. Ces déambulations méditatives prennent place essentiellement au sein des collections japonaises du musée Guimet et entraînent vers le geste et la calligraphie, l'architecture et les volumes, les rituels et le souvenir. 

La disposition des oeuvres contemporaines au sein des collections anciennes créent ainsi des espaces de compréhension dans une approche toujours multiple. Les carnets de voyage de Jean Clareboudt en sont de merveilleux exemples exprimant la sensibilité d’un artiste dans sa rencontre avec l’inconnu et la découverte de ce qui constitue une civilisation. Ils permettent de suivre, au quotidien, l’intuition spontanée d’un artiste. 

La compréhension, la transmission et l’échange des techniques représentent également une source d’inspiration jusqu’à se métamorphoser en geste pictural, comme dans l’oeuvre de Hans Hartung. Ces grands pastels expriment la force et l’implication de l’artiste tout autant que sa compréhension de la calligraphie.

La déambulation méditative, la circulation comme geste artistique est incarnée quand à elle par le travail de l’artiste On Kawara, « I went », qui durant dix années entre 1968 et 1979, a inscrit ses déplacements journaliers sur les cartes des villes qu’il traversa. Le marquage en rouge sur les plans urbains attestent de la présence physique de l’artiste de façon systématique et presque rituelle. 


REI NAITO, Pillow for the Dead, 1999
Fonds National d'Art Contemporain n° 99589 
© CNAP / Photo : Galerie Jennifer Flay

L’artiste japonaise Rei Naito, avec l’oeuvre Pillow for the Dead (photo ci-dessus) poursuit cette recherche contemplative. Ces « oreillers pour les morts » en organza illustrent de façon précieuse et fragile le dernier voyage et la tradition ancestrale de l’accompagnement  des morts.

La rotonde du 4ème étage du musée Guimet présente l’oeuvre participative de l’artiste française Marie-Ange Guilleminot : « Le salon de transformation blanc ».  Cet espace  offre au public un lieu de rencontre en l’invitant  à réaliser des Tsuru, pliages en forme de grues. A travers ces gestes simples, Marie Ange Guillememinot convie au recueillement et au souvenir des enfants morts lors de la catastrophe d’Hiroshima. 

Commissariat de l'exposition :
Caroline Arhuero, responsable de l’art contemporain au Musée Guimet
Sébastien Faucon, responsable des collections arts plastiques au CNAP

Musée des Arts Asiatiques Guimet
6, place d’Iéna - 75116 Paris
Site internet du musée : www.guimet.fr
Site internet du Centre national des arts plastiques : www.cnap.fr

25/10/12

Photographer Mario Testino Exhibition MFA, Boston


Mario Testino: In Your Face and British Royal Portraits
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Mario Testino: In Your Face, through February 3, 2013 
Mario Testino: British Royal Portraits, through June 16, 2013

Mario Testino’s compelling fashion and celebrity photographs have appeared in international magazines and advertising campaigns for leading fashion houses for the past three decades.  Beginning October 21, the man behind the camera that has captured countless iconic images for Vogue and Vanity Fair is featured in two exhibitions of his work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA)—Mario Testino: In Your Face and British Royal Portraits


Kate Moss, London, 2006 © Mario Testino 
Photo Courtesy of the artist and MFA, Boston

Mario Testino: In Your Face showcases 122 images by the photographer, known for works that evoke elegance, beauty, style, irreverence, and contradiction. The range and quality of Testino’s career is illustrated in photographs of international superstars, such as models Kate Moss, Stephanie Seymour, and Gisele Bündchen; actors Nicole Kidman and Gwyneth Paltrow; musicians Mick Jagger, Madonna, and Lady Gaga; and athletes David Beckham and Tom Brady. Mario Testino: British Royal Portraits focuses on the portraits he has taken of generations of the British royal family. Mario Testino has personally chosen the works for these exhibitions. The photographs on view offer a retrospective of his prolific career, which began shortly after Testino’s arrival in London from his native Peru in 1976. In Your Face draws upon thousands of exquisitely styled images that document his creative journey in pursuit—and in celebration—of beauty.  Mario Testino’s photographs are bold, graphic, and “in your face.” The exhibition illustrates fashion, elegance, sex, and nudity, reflecting the photographer’s unique aesthetic and stylistic range. “I am honored to be invited by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to exhibit my work in these two exhibitions, my first in the United States,” said Mario Testino. “These exhibitions are a very personal reflection of the past 30 years in which I have been a photographer.”  


Mario Testino 
Photo Courtesy MFA, Boston

In Your Face provides access to Mario Testino’s world—from models, movie stars, and musicians, to a host of glitterati.  At the entrance to the Gund Gallery, a wall of 16 screens offers behind-the-scenes video of the globetrotting photographer. In addition, visitors to the exhibition can experience Mario Testino in action and recalling career-defining moments on the Museum’s hand-held multimedia guide, which features audio and video selections relating to works in the exhibitions. Among the many famous faces on view are Jennifer Lopez, Keith Richards, Kate Winslet, and Ashton Kutcher. Styled portraits are juxtaposed with candid private party snapshots, nudes with fashion, black-and-white with color, and interiors with exterior settings. These arrangements capture the interplay of mass media, celebrity, and glamour, showcased in an installation that offers the observer a more intimate connection with the works. The photographs, many of them printed on aluminum, rest on shelves running the length of the teal-colored Gund Gallery. Images vary in size, ranging from monumental color prints (8’x6’) to intimately sized (1’x2’) black-and-white snapshots.   

“The MFA’s relationship with Mario Testino began when he came to the Museum in 2010 to participate in the Karsh photography lecture series” said Anne Havinga, Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Senior Curator of Photographs at the MFA.   “These two exhibitions are the result of a wonderful collaboration between Mario and the Museum, and reveal the artist’s perspective on the popular culture of our time.”  

Mario Testino is highly regarded for the photographs of British royalty he has been commissioned to take throughout his career, and he has chosen his personal favorites for the exhibition British Royal Portraits. “I have been so fortunate to have documented key moments in the lives of the British royal family. I have always been inspired by their sense of tradition and duty—it is always a huge honor for me to photograph them and I am delighted that many of these pictures will be on display, together for the first time, in the Herb Ritts gallery at the MFA,” said Mario Testino. 


TRH The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, London, 2010 
© Mario Testino 
Photo Courtesy of the artist and MFA, Boston

British Royal Portraits is the first US showing of the 2010 engagement portraits Testino was commissioned to take of Prince William and Kate Middleton, now TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.  Also on view is the iconic and elegant black-and-white portrait he took of Diana, Princess of Wales, which first appeared in Vanity Fair magazine in 1997 and was her last official sitting before her death that year. The framed images of the royals—many measuring approximately 3’ x 4‘—are shown against royal blue walls. They range from a snapshot of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to informal black-and-white images of Prince Charles with his sons William and Harry.  Also on view is the first picture Mario Testino took of members of the House of Windsor a few years after arriving in London from Peru. The photographer snapped an impromptu black-and-white shot of The Queen Mother and her grandson, Prince Edward, as they passed by crowds gathered in London’s streets to celebrate the marriage of HRH The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. Since then, Mario Testino has become a preferred photographer of the royal family.    

To complement the exhibition Mario Testino: In Your Face, a variety of publications, limited-edition prints by Mario Testino, designer jewelry, and select fashions are being offered in the MFA Bookstore and Shop. The 223-page publication Mario Testino: In Your Face (Taschen, 2012) features 122 black-and-white and color images taken by Testino from 1993 through 2012 and includes contributions by Anna Wintour, Editor in Chief of Vogue; Jennifer Allen, editor of the contemporary art and culture magazine, frieze d/e; and Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the MFA. Other Testino books on sale include MaRio de Janeiro Testino (Tashen, 2009), and Kate Moss by Mario Testino (Taschen, 2011), as well as limited editions of Visionarie No. 46: Uncensored (Visionaire, 2005), a book edited by Testino highlighting the work of various artists on the theme of sex.  Additionally, the shop is offering four limited-edition prints signed by Testino featuring images of models Kate Moss, Carmen Kass, and Natalia Vodianova, and actress Sienna Miller. 

These exhibitions, his first in the United States, are co-sponsored by Stuart Weitzman and Swarovski.  Additional support for Mario Testino: British Royal Portraits is provided by British Airways.  

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum's website: www.mfa.org

22/10/12

20th century iconic art works at High Museum of Art, Atlanta


Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913 ›› 2013
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
October 13, 2012 - January 20, 2013

In the exhibition Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913 ›› 2013, the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, is explorin the development of modern and contemporary art by selecting key years in art history that represent watershed moments in the 20th century.


ROY LICHTENSTEIN (American, 1923-1997), Girl with Ball, 1961
Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 60¼ x 36¼ inches (153 x 91.9 cm)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, gift of Philip Johnson, 421.1981

The exhibition presents approximately 100 works of art created during the years 1913, 1929, 1950, 1961, and 1988, as well as the art of today.  The exhibition examines the years prior to the start of World War I and the Great Depression, the lead-up to postwar American prosperity and the years preceding the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall and how artists responded to and were influenced by events on the world stage.

The exhibition also presents the works of contemporary artists Aaron Curry, Katharina Grosse, and Sarah Sze, whose work extends themes first explored in the 20th century and updates them for the 21st century.

Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913 ›› 2013 is one of the largest surveys of 20th-century art to ever be exhibited in the southeastern United States. Co-organized by the High Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA), as part of the two museums’ ongoing collaboration, the exhibition is on view since October 13, 2012, through January 20, 2013.

“These periods of time ushered in new ways of thinking that forever transformed the artistic landscapes,” said Michael E. Shapiro, the High’s Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr., Director. “We’re delighted that this partnership with MoMA will enable our visitors to see how the work of artists from different eras was influenced by major historical events.”

The exhibition includes iconic works from each represented year, including:

· 1913: Umberto Boccioni’s Futurist sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
· 1929: Salvador Dalí’s Surrealist painting Illumined Pleasures
· 1950: Willem de Kooning’s landmark of Abstract Expressionism, Woman, I
· 1961: Roy Lichtenstein’s Pop art masterpiece Girl With Ball  
· 1988: Jeff Koons’s famed porcelain sculpture Pink Panther

Michael Rooks, the High’s Wieland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, has chosen Aaron Curry, Katharina Grosse and Sarah Sze to highlight the art of 2013. Sarah Sze, who will represent the United States in the 2013 Venice Biennale, created a site-specific installation for the High. Aaron Curry debuts three new works—monumental, polychromed steel sculptures titled “Boo,” “Thing” and “Deadhead”—which are installed on the Museum’s lawn. Rounding out the selection, a large three-dimensional painting by Katharina Grosse are on display on the skyway level of the Wieland Pavilion. 

“Aaron Curry, Katharina Grosse, and Sarah Sze are artists who push the boundaries of artistic practice,” said Rooks. “Each is known for their conceptually open-ended and physically immersive works that invite viewers to walk through and around them. In the process of physically exploring these works, viewers draw out the present moment, stretching time toward moments yet to come.”

AARON CURRY (born 1972), on view through May 2013
Originally trained as a painter, Aaron Curry turned to sculpture while he was an undergraduate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he first became interested in the flat planes that characterized the work of David Smith and Isamu Noguchi. Aaron Curry’s interplay between two and three dimensions encourages viewers to walk around his work, creating new lines of sight as planes of color rotate into nothingness. In his own words, his sculptures are “almost like a cubist painting . . . [they] refer to the surface but give you illusion at the same time. It’s an awkward space that I still find rather exciting to play with.” Since earning his M.F.A. from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, he has exhibited in dozens of group shows throughout the United States and Europe as well as solo shows in Los Angeles, Berlin, London and New York. In 2010, Aaron Curry received a fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin, an experience that culminated in an exhibition at the Schinkel Pavilion in early 2011. His work has been praised by critics Holland Cotter and Roberta Smith, the latter of whom proclaimed Curry’s work to be “physically inventive and sculpturally inclined.”

KATHARINA GROSSE (born 1961), on view through January 20, 2013
The Berlin-based artist Katharina Grosse’s distinctive approach to painting and installation is characterized by the simultaneous expansion and elimination of boundaries for painting, “Abstract Expressionism opened up new ways to look at painting, but it also hindered, to a certain extent, painting’s development. Negating painting’s illusionism narrowed it down to applying paint to a flat surface. I have a totally different approach. I don’t think that a painting is a coherent, closed system that only takes place within its borders.” Her works challenge traditional notions of painting and architectural space and invite viewers to confront their spatial boundaries. Katharina Grosse resists identification with specific media, historical movements or other affiliations, preferring instead to remain as uninhibited as possible. Since 1996 she has exhibited in more than 30 solo shows and several dozen group shows in galleries and museums across the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Tate St. Ives in England, the Museum for New Art in Freiburg, Germany, and Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark (Wanafoto has published a post about this exhibition with pictures of Katharina Grosse artworks). In 2011 she installed her monumental installation “One Floor up More Highly” at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, which received critical praise, including the article, “Chromatic Theater,” published in Art in America. In addition to her artistic practice, Katharina Grosse is currently a professor of fine arts at the Arts Academy of Dusseldorf.

SARAH SZE (born 1969), on view through January 20, 2013
Educated at Yale University and the School of Visual Arts, New York, Sarah Sze has emerged as one of the foremost installation artists of her generation. Best known for her elaborate and gravity-defying installations—microcosmic spaces of dizzying complexity—her work often seems to be a three-dimensional collage in which the placement of every object holds meaning both outside the work and within it. Her coupling of familiar objects—towels, chairs, ladders, for exmaple—with ones that are less immediately identifiable provokes the viewer to create rich associations between otherwise unrelated items. Over the last fifteen years, she has shown in group exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale, and at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Monographic exhibitions of her work have been organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Whitney; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others. Her permanent installations are on display at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California, Berkley. Sarah Sze has been the recipient of numerous honors, including the Atelier Calder prize and a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and most recently she has been selected to represent the United States at the 2013 Venice Biennale. Sarah Sze lives and works in New York City. 

Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913 ›› 2013 continues a multi-year, multi-exhibition collaboration between the High and MoMA, which began in 2009 with “Monet Water Lilies,” the first in a series of six exhibitions, followed by “Modern by Design” in summer 2011 and “Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters,”. The initiative builds on successful past collaborations between the High and MoMA that resulted in four exhibitions presented in Atlanta between 1997 and 2000. This project extends ties between the institutions through professional exchanges, development of educational programs and publications and reciprocal admission benefits. 

This exhibition is organized by Jodi Hauptman, MoMA Curator of Drawings, and Samantha Friedman, MoMA Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Drawings, in collaboration with David Brenneman, the High’s Director of Collections and Exhibitions and Frances B. Bunzl Family Curator of European Art, and Michael Rooks, the High’s Wieland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913 ›› 2013 is accompanied by a fully illustrated 
catalogue.

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia 30309
Museum's website: www.high.org

Expo Photo La Jeune Fille dans la ville, Collection photographique agnès b. au Salon de la Photo 2012


La Jeune Fille dans la Ville
Collection photographique d’agnès b. au Salon de la Photo 2012, Paris
8 - 12 novembre 2012

La collection photographique d’agnès b. est réputée, composée à la fois de signatures prestigieuses et de talents nouveaux soutenus par la styliste qui est également mécène et galeriste. Le Salon de la Photo, partenaire du Mois de la Photographie 2012, lui rend hommage à travers une sélection d’œuvres qu’Agnès Troublé, dite agnès b., a choisies sur le thème de « La jeune fille dans la ville ».


DIANE ARBUS
Two girls in matching bathing sits. 
Coney Island, NY, 1967

Une soixantaine de photographies, courant du début du 20e siècle à aujourd’hui et confrontant des œuvres de Brassaï, Walter Evans, Diane Arbus, ou encore Martin Parr, Martine Barrat,… pour ne citer très arbitrairement que quelques noms parmi les dizaines exposés, les autres n’étant pas de moindre importance ou notoriété ! Et s’il faut résumer de A à Z, ce sera de l’Américaine Berenice Abbott à l’Italien Franco Zecchin. 


STEVE HIETT
Cecelia. Thanksgiving. 
West Side Highway, New York, 1993


« Les photos qui composent ma collection - si c’en est une - racontent un peu l’histoire de ma relation à la photographie et sans doute aussi, en partie, l’évolution de celle-ci. Je crois que c’est le travail de Henri Cartier-Bresson qui le premier m’a fait prendre conscience de tout ce qui pourrait être dit par ce médium. A partir de là, j’ai appris la photographie, avec gourmandise. J’ai avec elle une relation intime, très suivie, très exigeante ; mon cheminement et mes choix se font sans complaisance. Je suis heureuse d’observer son évolution, de la voir se diversifier à toute vitesse.» -- Agnès b. 


HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON 
Chez Lipp, Paris, 1968


En outre, le Salon de la Photo a offert un don au Fonds de Dotation agnès b. pour la photographie, qui l’a attribué à deux de ses découvertes : Amélie Debray et Marion Poussier qui auront, chacune, une photo exposée au Salon de la Photo. 


Site web du Salon de la Photo

21/10/12

Anish Kapoor: Flashback, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK

Anish Kapoor: Flashback
Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK
Through 4 November 2012


Anish Kapoor, White Sand, Red Millet, Many Flowers, 1982
Wood, cement and pigment 
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London
© Anish Kapoor

Flashback is a major series of touring exhibitions from the Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre. Taking as its starting point the Collection’s founding principle of supporting emerging artists through the purchase of their work, the series showcases internationally renowned British artists whose works have been acquired by the Collection. The monographic exhibitions combine works from the Collection with new pieces borrowed directly from the artists, giving a unique insight into the evolution of these key figures in British art. Following on from the success of the first Flashback exhibition of work by Bridget Riley, the second artist in the series of monographic exhibitions is renowned artist and Turner Prize winner, Anish Kapoor. 

Anish Kapoor, Longside Gallery. 
Courtesy of Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Photo © Jonty Wilde 

Anish Kapoor’s sensual and beguiling sculptures are created using a range of materials including pigment, stone, polished stainless steel and wax. Following on from the critical acclaim of his show at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2009, this Flashback exhibition gives an opportunity to explore Kapoor’s earlier works alongside recent pieces lent directly by the artist. The exhibition includes a selection of major sculptures on loan from UK collections, and from the Arts Council Collection. This is the first survey of Kapoor's work to be held in the UK, outside of London.

Anish Kapoor, Untitled, 1995 
Stainless steel 
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London. 
Acquired with the assistance from The Henry Moore Foundation, 1998 
© Anish Kapoor

The show is selected by the artist in close dialogue with the Arts Council Collection and includes works such as White Sand, Red Millet, Many Flowers (1982) which demonstrates Kapoor’s early interest in applying raw pigment to a range of organic forms. The sculpture was acquired by the Arts Council Collection the same year and has been lent to many major institutions as a key example of his early work. Alongside this, the optically illusionary Untitled (1997-98) is a highlypolished stainless steel void embedded into the wall that draws the viewer into a seemingly bottomless reflection and is emblematic of the seamless mirrored forms that have made Kapoor a household name. The exhibition includes the large-scale installation Her Blood (1998) shown for the first time in the UK.


Anish Kapoor, Red in the Centre, 1982 
© National Museums Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery. 
Photo © Jonty Wilde - Courtesy of YSP

Anish Kapoor, Untitled, 1983 
© Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. 
Photo © Jonty Wilde - Courtesy of YSP

The exhibition is toured by Hayward Touring Exhibitions. It was seen at Manchester Art Gallery (5 March - 5 June 2011) before touring to the Sculpture Court, Edinburgh College of Art (Edinburgh Festival, Summer 2011), Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery (19 November 2011 - 11 March 2012) and Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (16 June - 4 November 2012).

Anish Kapoor: Flashback - An illustrated exhibition catalogue was published, including an essay by Michael Bracewell and an interview with Anish Kapoor by Andrew Renton.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, Wakefield WF4 4LG
Yorkshire Sculpture Park's website: www.ysp.co.uk
The Arts Council Collection's website: www.artscouncilcollection.org.uk

Sharon Lockhart, Jewish Museum, NYC, 2012-2013


Sharon Lockhart | Noa Eshkol
The Jewish Museum, New York City
November 2, 2012 - March 24, 2013

The Jewish Museum in New York City presents Sharon Lockhart | Noa Eshkol, the US East Coast premiere of Sharon Lockhart’s latest body of work, from November 2, 2012 through March 24, 2013. In this exhibition, co-organized by the Los Angeles Museum of Art (LACMA) and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Sharon Lockhart engages the legacy of Noa Eshkol, the Israeli dance composer, theorist, and textile artist who created an innovative notation system that describes virtually every perceptible movement of the body. Conceived by Lockhart as a two-person exhibition, Sharon Lockhart | Noa Eshkol consists of a new, large-scale, five-channel film installation, series of photographs and architectural interventions by Lockhart, and a selection of Eshkol’s carpets, scores, and archival drawings. 

This exhibition opened at the Israel Museum in December 2011 and subsequently was shown at LACMA. Sharon Lockhart | Noa Eshkol was organized by Stephanie Barron, Senior Curator of Modern Art, and Britt Salvesen, Curator of Photography, both at LACMA; and by Talia Amar, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Israel Museum. Aviva Weintraub, Associate Curator at The Jewish Museum, is coordinating the New York presentation.

ABOUT THE ARTIST SHARON LOCKART
Since the 1990s, internationally renowned Los Angeles-based artist Sharon Lockhart has captured specific moments from the everyday life of a wide range of communities through photography and film, including a girls’ basketball team in a Tokyo suburb for Goshogaoka (1997), young children in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada for Pine Flat (2006), and factory workers in Maine for Lunch Break (2008). Lockhart’s in-depth exploration of her subjects allows her to discern and distill their day-to-day rhythms and routines. It was during a research trip to Israel in 2008 that she first encountered the work of Israeli artist Noa Eshkol (1924-2007). In the 1950s, together with architect Avraham Wachman, Eshkol developed a wholly original movement notation system known as the Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation (EWMN), which uses symbols and numbers to express the spatial relationships between the parts of the body. Eshkol devoted her life to perfecting the system, which has been applied across a broad range of research fields. Because she preferred to work in relative isolation and without concern for public acclaim, Eshkol’s work in modern dance is little known outside of Israel. Drawn to the parallels between Eshkol’s theories and her own lines of interest—including stasis and motion in still and moving images, postmodern dance and Minimalism—Lockhart began working with the dancers and individuals who continue to preserve Eshkol’s legacy today. 

SHARON LOCKART | NOA ESHKOL: EXHIBITION OVERVIEW
Presented on the first and third floors of The Jewish Museum, Sharon Lockhart | Noa Eshkol explores aspects of Eshkol’s extraordinary practice through several mediums. For the five-channel installation Five Dances and Nine Wall Carpets by Noa Eshkol (2011), Lockhart filmed seven dancers in various combinations performing five compositions by Eshkol, each set against a selection of Eshkol’s “wall carpets,” or textile works. The concepts behind Eshkol’s dances are illustrated by spherical models made of wire and mesh, which Eshkol constructed as a teaching aid for the notation method. A series of still photographs by Lockhart documents these objects and conveys the logic of movement they are meant to illustrate in groupings of two to five prints. The film installation and photographic series are accompanied by a selection of documents, notes, and drawings from Eshkol’s archive, shedding light on particular aspects of her creative process.

In the exhibition’s final gallery on the Museum’s third floor, Lockhart is installing two vibrant examples of Eshkol’s work as a textile artist. The “wall carpets,” as Eshkol called them, were assembled without cutting any new material, using only found scraps of fabric. The dancers participated by sorting the scraps and sewing the final arrangements. Eventually some 500 wall carpets were created, representing a substantial aspect of Eshkol’s oeuvre. Lockhart’s five-channel film marks the first occasion in which Eshkol’s work in movement and textiles is brought together. 

The exhibition creates an encounter between the two artists that explores the nature of artistic practice, its preservation, and its interpretation, as well as the experience and representation of space, time, and movement. The architectural components and site-specific intervention were designed in collaboration with Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena of Escher GuneWardena Architecture, Los Angeles, who have contributed to Lockhart’s exhibitions and film installations since 2000. Dane Davis and composer Becky Allen worked with Lockhart to create the film installation’s soundtrack. The dancers featured in the film installation are active members of the Noa Eshkol Foundation for Movement Notation in Holon, Israel, an organization dedicated to preserving the legacy of Noa Eshkol.

SHARON LOCKART | NOA ESHKOL: EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, co-published by LACMA, the Israel Museum, and DelMonico Books/Prestel. Contents include essays by Talia Amar, Stephanie Barron and Britt Salvesen, Eva Diaz, and Michal Shoshani, and interviews with Eshkol’s dancers as well as between Lockhart and Sabine Eckmann.

This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Leadership support for The Jewish Museum presentation is provided by the Estate of Lyn Barris. Initial support for Sharon Lockhart | Noa Eshkol was provided by The Tel Aviv / Los Angeles Partnership – a collaborative project of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo and the Jewish Agency for Israel; and The Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation, Los Angeles. 

Jewish Museum, NYC, Website: www.thejewishmuseum.org

20/10/12

Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2012 Shortlist Selections


Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2012 Shortlist Selections

The thirty photobooks shortlisted for the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2012 were announced in The PhotoBook Review 003, Aperture’s biannual publication dedicated to the consideration of the photobook. 

In November 2011, Paris Photo and Aperture Foundation joined forces for The Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards, celebrating the book’s contribution to the evolving narrative of photography. This year, the Awards focused on two major categories: First PhotoBook and PhotoBook of the Year.


The initial selection was made by  Phillip Block, Deputy Director of Programs and Director of Education at the International Center of Photography; Chris Boot, Executive Director of Aperture Foundation; Julien Frydman, Director of Paris Photo; Lesley A. Martin, Publisher at Aperture Foundation; and James Wellford,  senior international photo editor at Newsweek magazine. The selected photobooks will be exhibited at Paris Photo at the Grand Palais and at Aperture Gallery in New York; and will tour to other venues, to be determined.

A final jury in Paris, including Els Barents, Director of the Huis Marseille Museum for Photography; Roxana Marcoci, Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and Curator of the Paris Photo 2012 Platform; Edward Robinson, Associate Curator of Photography at Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and  Thomas Seelig, Curator of the Fotomuseum Winterthur,  Timothy Prus, Curator of AMC Books, will select the winners for both prizes, which will be revealed at the opening of Paris Photo on November 15, 2012. The winner of First PhotoBook of the year will be awarded $10,000. 

Paris Photo is a leading international fair dedicated to nineteenth century, modernist, and contemporary photography. Held for the first time at the Grand Palais in 2011, Paris Photo will gather 127 French and international galleries from twenty-two countries, in November 2012. To complete this panorama of worldwide photography, a selection of twenty-three publishers and international specialized dealers will have a dedicated space at the fair.  The fair welcomes 50,000 enthusiasts and photography collectors from all over the world. Paris Photo will launch Paris Photo Los Angeles at the Picture Paramount Studios on April 24–28, 2013. 

Aperture, a not-for-profit foundation, connects the photo community and its audiences with the most inspiring work, the sharpest ideas, and with each other—in print, in person, and online. Created in 1952 by photographers and writers as “common ground for the advancement of photography,” Aperture today is a multiplatform publisher and center for the photo community. From its base in New York, Aperture produces, publishes, and presents a program of photography projects, locally and internationally. 

The ten shortlisted titles for the 2012 Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook of the Year are: 

History Repeating
Photographer: Ori Gersht
Publisher: MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Texts by Al Miner (assistant curator, Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Yoav Rinon (professor of Comparative Literature at Hebrew University, Jerusalem), interview with the artist by Ronni Baer (William and Ann Elfers Senior Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Image Courtesy MFA, Boston


Retinal Shift 
Photographer: Mikhael Subotzky
Publisher: Steidl
“For me, photography has become a way of attempting to make sense of the very strange world that I see around me. I don’t ever expect to achieve that understanding, but the fact that I am trying comforts me.” Mikhael Subotzky

Edited by Ivan Vladislavic, book design by Michael Aberman and Emmet Byrne, 300 pages, 250 colour plates, 19 cm x 26 cm, clothbound hardcover. Retinal Shift is the first printed retrospective of Mikhael Subotzky's work. Image Courtesy Steidl.
Mikhael Subotzky was born in 1981 in Cape Town and is currently based in Johannesburg. The photographer is a member of the Magnum agency. Recent and upcoming Mikhael Subotzky's exhibitions: Grahamstown National Arts Festival, 28 June - 8 July 2012; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, 25 July - 5 September 2012; Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg, 20 September to 11 November 2012; IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town, 28 November 2012 to 9 January 2013; Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, Bloemfontein, 27 February to 29 March 2013; Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, 15 April to 23 April 2013 (Mikhael Subotzky was the winner of  the 2012 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art) ; University of Potchefstroom Art Gallery, Potchefstroom, 27 June to 2 August 2013.


Rachael, Monique
Photographer: Sophie Calle
Publisher: Xavier Barral

(based on a true story)
Photographer: David Alan Harvey
Publisher: Burn Books

City Diary
Photographer: Anders Peterson
Publisher: Steidl

Book of Books
Photographer: Stephen Shore
Publisher: Phaidon

A landmark two volume limited edition collection of work by one of the world's greatest photographers. Image Courtesy Phaidon


Two Thousand Light Years From Home
Photographer: Pietro Mattioli
Publisher: Kodoji Press

Table of Power 2
Photographer: Jacqueline Hassink
Publisher: Hatje Cantz

She
Photographer: Lise Sarfati
Publisher: Twin Palms

A Head with Wings
Photographer: Anouk Kruithof
Publisher: Little Brown Mushroom

The twenty shortlisted titles for the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation First PhotoBook are: 

Uncle Charlie
Photographer: Marc Asnin
Publisher: Contrasto

Afronauts
Photographer: Cristina De Middel
Publisher: Cristina De Middel

Concresco
Photographer: David Galjaard
Text: Slavenka Drakulić and Jaap Scholten
Publisher: David Galjaard

Summer Weather
Photographer: Michael Jang
Publisher: Owl and Tiger

Watching
Photographer: N&D
Publisher: Random Number 11

Jeddah Diary
Photographer: Olivia Arthur
Publisher: Fishbar

Metsästä, From the Woods
Photographer: Anne Golaz
Publisher: Kehrer Verlag

Sans titre, M. Bertillon
Photographer: Stéphanie Solinas
Publisher: RVB Books

Cette Montagne, C’est Moi
Photographer: Witho Worms
Publisher: Fw:

The Wrong Side: Living on the Mexican Border
Photographer: Jérôme Sessini
Publisher: Contrasto

Hired Hand
Photographers: Stuart Bailes, Bea Fremderman, Ingo Mittelstaedt, Athena Torri
Publisher: Vandret PublicaMons

Celebrity
Photographer: Kenji Hirasawa
Publisher: Bemojake

Cruising
Photographer: Chad States
Publisher: powerHouse Books

C.E.N.S.U.R.A.
Photographer: Julián Barón
Publisher: Editorial RM

Singular Beauty
Photographer: Cara Phillips
Publisher: Fw:

Dive Dark, Dream Slow
Photographer: Melissa Catanese
Publisher: The Ice Plant

A Natural Order
Photographer: Lucas Foglia
Publisher: Nazraeli Press

Interrogations
Photographer: Donald Weber
Publisher: Schilt

7 Rooms
Photographer: Rafal Milach
Publisher: Kehrer Verlag, Treemedia

Ama
Photographer: Nina Poppe
Publisher: Kehrer Verlag


In addition to the prize and the exhibitions of shortlisted books, Paris Photo at the Grand Palais in Paris will also host the exhibition Livre ouvert, featuring prints of Bernd and Hilla Becher, presented alongside the works from the exhibition Bernd & Hilla Becher-Printed Materials, 1964-2012. As always, the fair will dedicate a space to publishers and specialist booksellers, and present newly listed titles, old and rare books, as well as limited editions. Numerous signing sessions with photographers are organized during the five-day event. 

Publishers Attending Paris Photo 2012 

AKAAKA Japan 
APERTURE United States 
ANTICUARIA POEMA 20 Argentina 
BOOKSHOP M Japan 
CHLOE ET DENIS OZANNE France 
CONTRASTO Italy 
DIRK K. BAKKER BOEKEN Netherlands 
FILIGRANES France 
FLORENCE LOEWY France 
HARPER’S BOOKS United States 
HATJE CANTZ Germany 
IRVING ZUCKER ART BOOKS United States 
KEHRER VERLAG Germany 
LES EDITIONS DE L’ŒIL France 
LIBRAIRIE 213 France 
MACK United Kingdom 
MICHAEL SEKSIK France 
OLIVER J WOOD United Kingdom 
ONLY PHOTOGRAPHY Germany 
RM Mexico 
STEIDL Germany 
TISSATO NAKAHARA France 
XAVIER BARRAL France 

Paris Photo 
Thursday, November 15 - Sunday, November 18, 2012
Grand Palais - Avenue Winston-Churchill - Paris
Website: www.parisphoto.com
Aperture Foudation Website: www.aperture.org

19/10/12

Paris Photo 2012, Grand Palais, Paris


PARIS PHOTO 2012
Grand Palais, Paris
15 -18 novembre 2012

Pour sa 16ème édition - Paris Photo accueillera en novembre sous la nef du Grand Palais 140 exposants provenant de 23 pays, et propose à nouveau cette année une programmation inédite : l’exposition « Acquisitions Récentes » des grandes institutions, l’exposition « Collection Privée », le Prix du livre (Paris Photo – Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards), l’exposition « Livre Ouvert » et la Plateforme de débats et d’entretiens. 

Cette année Paris Photo accueille sous la nef du Grand Palais 128 galeries et 23 spécialistes du livre de photographie.

L’exposition « Acquisitions récentes »  présentera les nouvelles collections photographiques du LACMA (Los Angeles), du Fotomuseum de Winterthur (Suisse) et de Huis Marseille (Amsterdam).

L’exposition « Livre ouvert » mettra à l’honneur les publications (livres et éphémeras) de Bernd & Hilla Becher (quelques photos ici), rendant ainsi compte de l’importance du support imprimé dans la formalisation de leurs typologies. Cette exposition a été organisée par le Musée de l'Elysée à Lausanne. Le visuel officiel de Paris Photo 2012, reproduit ci-dessus, se base sur une des photos classiques du couple de photographes. 

La Plateforme  proposera 4 jours d’événements live : entretiens, tables rondes et performances sous la direction de Roxana Marcoci, commissaire du département de photographie du MoMA de New York. Hilla Becher, Rem Koolhaas ou David Lynch y prendront la parole.

Enfin, pour la première fois, Paris Photo met en place un parcours inédit au cœur des galeries : « Paris Photo vu par… ». Ce parcours sera confié à une personnalité différente chaque année. En 2012, c’est à David Lynch que Paris Photo confie le soin de faire son choix parmi les œuvres exposées par les galeristes. Le parcours résultant de cette sélection sera identifié dans la Foire et pourra être suivi notamment sur l’application mobile Paris Photo. Une façon originale pour le public de contempler les œuvres tout en découvrant l’univers esthétique de David Lynch.

18/10/12

Texas Contemporary Art Fair 2012, Houston

La Texas Contemporary Art Fair , foire de l'art contemporain du Texas, rassemble du 18 au 21 octobre 2012 quelque 65 galeries d'art contemporain au George R. Brown Convention Center à Houston. Cette foire de l'art est organisée par artMRKT Productions fondé par Max Fishko et Jeffrey Wainhause, basé à New York, et qui produit également des manifestations artistiques équivalentes à San Francisco, Bridgehampton (New York) et Miami.

Alexandre Trauner - Jacques Prévert : Une oeuvre cinématographique. Vente Binoche et Giquello


Alexandre Trauner - Jacques Prévert : Une oeuvre cinématographique, Correspondances, dessins, maquettes, carnets, photographies, collages, 1932-1976



Binoche et Giquello organise le 24 octobre 2012, à Drouot, une très intéressente vente aux enchères comprenant, notamment, un très riche ensemble de photographies réalisées par Alexandre Trauner (1906-1993). Toutes les épreuves photographiques proposées sont en tirage d’époque.

Alexandre Trauner à Paris dans les années 1970
Tirage argentique en noir et blanc, 260 x 210 mm


Duke Ellington
Portrait du musicien par Alexandre Trauner, 1960
Duke Ellington dans les décors de Trauner. 
Paris Blues (Martin Ritt), 13 décembre 1960
Epreuve argentique, 400 x 300 mm, date au crayon au verso.
Partition manuscrite du thème de Paris Blues, signée


Experts - livres, manuscrits, collages : Claude Oterelo
Photographies, décors, maquettes : Serge Plantureux
Courtesy Binoche et Giquello

Exposition privée à l’étude Binoche et Giquello - 5 rue la Boétie - 75008 Paris, du lundi 15 au vendredi 19 octobre 2012 de 14h30 à 18h sur rendez-vous. Exposition publique - Drouot salle 4, mardi 23 octobre de 11h à 18h - mercredi 24 octobre de 11h à 12 h
Site internet : www.binocheetgiquello.com où le catalogue de l'exposition est disponible

17/10/12

Centenaire de l'Usine Peugeot Sochaux - Photos anciennes de l'exposition qui a été prolongée

PSA fête les 100 ans de l’Usine Peugeot à Sochaux : Photos de l’expo du Centenaire (1912-2012)

Le site de Peugeot Sochaux, premier site industriel de France et symbole de l'industrie automobile, est l'un des plus anciens sites de production automobile au monde toujours en activité. Fondé en 1912 par Peugeot, il célèbre cette année son centenaire. Lors de sa fondation, il était destiné à la production de camions et ce n'est qu'après la Première Guerre Mondiale que l'entreprise a pris la décision d'y concentrer l'ensemble de sa production.

Autour du slogan De notre histoire, nous puiserons notre force, le site de Sochaux célèbre son centenaire notamment à travers une exposition, baptisée M14, l'Expo du siècle, composée, entre autre, de documents photos inédits extraits d'une photothèque de plus d'un million de clichés, dont ce post vous présente quelques exemples, conservés au Centre d'Archives du Groupe de Terre Blanche : l'occasion de se pencher sur l'histoire de ce siècle vue de Sochaux, au travers de thématiques comme l'évolution des conditions de travail, la place des femmes dans l'industrie depuis 1912 ou encore la naissance et le développement d'un véhicule. L'exposition, initialement prévue pour un mois a débutée le 15 septembre. Face au succès rencontrée l'exposition anniversaire du si Sochaux de Peugeot a été prolongée jusqu'au 15 novembre 2012.


Ouvrier professionnel en 1914 Photographie ancienne : Ouvrier professionnel en 1914
Exposition "M14, l'expo du siècle" dans le cadre du centenaire du site de Sochaux (c) PSA


Peugeot 402 en situation en 1938 Photographie ancienne : Peugeot 402 en situation en 1938
Exposition "M14, l'expo du siècle" dans le cadre du centenaire du site de Sochaux (c) PSA


peugeot_ferrage_1938 
Photographie ancienne : Ferrage d’une voiture en 1938
Exposition "M14, l'expo du siècle" dans le cadre du centenaire du site de Sochaux (c) PSA


Femme travaillant en fonderie pendant la seconde guerre mondiale Photographie ancienne : Femme travaillant en fonderie pendant la seconde guerre mondiale
Exposition "M14, l'expo du siècle" dans le cadre du centenaire du site de Sochaux (c) PSA


Ramassage des ouvriers de Peugeot Sochaux en 1946
Photographie ancienne : Ramassage des ouvriers de Peugeot Sochaux en 1946
Exposition "M14, l'expo du siècle" dans le cadre du centenaire du site de Sochaux (c) PSA


Atelier de ferrage des Peugeot 203 en 1948 Photographie ancienne : Atelier de ferrage des Peugeot 203 en 1948
Exposition "M14, l'expo du siècle" dans le cadre du centenaire du site de Sochaux (c) PSA


Construction de la centrale thermique de lusine de Sochaux en 1949 Photographie ancienne : Construction de la centrale thermique de l’usine de Sochaux en 1949
Exposition "M14, l'expo du siècle" dans le cadre du centenaire du site de Sochaux (c) PSA


Ligne de montage des Peugeot 203 en 1951 Photographie ancienne : Ligne de montage des Peugeot 203 en 1951 
Exposition "M14, l'expo du siècle" dans le cadre du centenaire du site de Sochaux (c) PSA


Descente de caisse d'une Peugeot 404 en 1960 
Photographie ancienne : Descente de caisse d'une Peugeot 404 en 1960
Exposition "M14, l'expo du siècle" dans le cadre du centenaire du site de Sochaux (c) PSA


Montage, Peugeot 404 en bout de ligne en 1961 
Photographie ancienne : Montage, Peugeot 404 en bout de ligne en 1961 
Exposition "M14, l'expo du siècle" dans le cadre du centenaire du site de Sochaux (c) PSA


L'usine de Sochaux a produit plus de 20 millions de véhicules depuis sa création, parmi lesquels les Peugeot 201, 402, 203, 403, 404 et 504…. Le site assemble aujourd'hui 1670 véhicules par jour : des Peugeot 308, 3008, 5008 et des Citroën DS5, avec leurs versions hybrides. Employant 12 000 salariés, dont près de 4000 en Recherche et Développement, c'est aujourd'hui un site majeur dans le dispositif de production de PSA Peugeot Citroën. Le Groupe y a investi récemment 200 millions d'euros dans la création d'un nouvel atelier de Ferrage et la modernisation de l'atelier de Peinture. En fêtant les cent ans de l'usine de Sochaux, c'est un hommage qui est rendu aux générations de femmes et d'hommes qui se sont succédées pour transformer des bobines d'acier en voitures toujours plus performantes.



centenaire_peugeot_sochaux Entrée du hall de l’exposition "M14, l'Expo du siècle" prolongée jusqu'au 15 novembre 2012 à Sochaux - Photographie Courtesy PSA, de même que les précédentes

Le Centre d'Archives "Terre Blanche" de PSA Peugeot Citroën situé à Hérimoncourt (près de Sochaux) conserve la mémoire de la longue histoire de la marque. Lors des journées du Patrimoine, en septembre dernier, le centre avait ouvert ses portes au public. Le centre conserve des milliers de documents historiques. Il s'est engagé dans une campagne de numérisation de ses archives.

Ancienne obligation Peugeot, au Centre d'Archives PSA Peugeot Citroën

 Ancienne obligation Citroën, au Centre d'Archives PSA Peugeot Citroën

Personne réalisant des scans de livres, au Centre d'Archives PSA Peugeot Citroën

16/10/12

Akbar. The Great Emperor of India, Museo Fondazione Roma


Akbar. The Great Emperor of India 
Museo Fondazione Roma, Palazzo Sciarra, Roma
Curated by Gian Carlo Calza 
23th october 2012 - 3th february 2013

Akbar receiving gifts, 1590
Paper, 21,50 x 15,50 cm
National Museum, New Delhi

An exhibition devoted to the Emperor of India, Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar (Umarkot, 1542-1605, Agra) one of the greatest sovereigns in history is presented by the Fondazione Roma. This exhibition has never been held before in Italy and, due to the number of works and historical completeness, is unique in the world since it covers the Emperor’s entire reign.  The last exhibition on this theme was held in New York by the Asia Society in 1984-86, showing around eighty works relating to 1571-1585. The Exhibition Akbar. The Great Emperor of India has been promoted by the Fondazione Roma and organised by Fondazione Roma-Arte-Musei with the Arthemesia Group. Curated by Gian Carlo Calza, the exhibition presents a selection of works produced during the reign of Emperor Akbar, in order to illustrate the great historical transformations in an age full of political and social events and to portray the personality of a man who made a particular contribution to artistic, cultural and religious dialogue.  

Akbar reigned from 1556 to 1605.  He was the most important Mughal Emperor and became Akbar – meaning ‘The Great’ – as a result of his military commitment and numerous conquests and also because of his administrative reforms and ability to make different religions live together and to spread culture, art and beauty throughout his realm. 

Sita offers fruit to Rama in the forest of Dandaka-ranya
Illustration from The Adventures of Rama (Ramayana)
Orchha, Bundelkhand, 1600-1605
Opaque Watercolor, ink and paper (gold)
28 x 18 cm
National Museum, New Delhi

The exhibition has a vast collection of works of art that aim to describe the classical India that circulates in the Western social imaginary - formed of Mughal Emperors, Rajas and Maharajahs - and was a destination for explorers, merchants and conquerors who arrived in that mysterious, rich and fascinating land from all over the world. An extraordinary nucleus of over 130 works has been selected to describe the life and act of Akbar, the third and principal Emperor of the Mughal imperial dynasty which lasted until the sub-continent was annexed to the British Crown in 1858.

Couple of ornaments for the ears
Probably Mughal domains. Probably early seventeenth century.
Running in gold kundan work with technical and setting with rubies, diamonds and emeralds with pearls suspended - 8.2 x 6.3 cm
Kuwait National Museum, Al-Sabah Collection

Of Muslim lineage, the Mughal were founded by Babur, the first to have conquered India and descendant of Genghis Khan (1162?-1277) and Timur (1369-1450), who lived from 1483 to 1530 and reigned from 1526 until his death. When Babur died his sons, Kamran Mirza and Humayun, Akbar’s father, divided the territories of his realm, though a civil war soon broke out and drove Humayun into exile in Persia. During his peregrinations, Akbar was born, in 1542, in the Rajput Fortress of Umerkot (now Pakistan) and had to be fostered by an uncle in Afghanistan.  Since the future Emperor grew up hunting and fighting amidst soldiers he was not taught to read or write: though he remained illiterate throughout life, he still developed a taste for art, music, literature and architecture. In 1556, at only thirteen years old, Akbar succeeded his father who had recently reconquered the empire and, due to the military brilliance of Bairam Khan, a valiant and faithful General of the Mughal army, he conquered most of the sub-continent and took control of the realm at nineteen years of age.  Thus a new age opened in India since the young warrior proved to be one of the most enlightened sovereigns in history. 

Arghan Dev brings the case of weapons to Amir Hamza
Illustration from The Adventures of Hamza (Hamzanama)
Mughal School, circa 1570
Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper and fabric
79.1 x 63.3 cm
Brooklyn Museum, New York

Akbar, a Muslim, rejected any form of religious extremism and aimed to integrate the various races and autochthonous religions with Islam; he invited eminent exponents of each creed to court and appointed them as ministers; abolished the traditional Jizya tax which all non-Muslims were required to pay and, wishing to form an alliance with the Rajputs - an ancient caste of Indian warriors - he married the daughter of Raja Bharmal, Hira Kunwari.  He also abolished the idea of a State religion and introduced the principles of religious tolerance and equality which, in the entire history of humankind, are still exceptional. Driven by his religious tolerance, he attempted to create a syncretic religion that merged Islam and Hinduism; amongst many cities, Akbar also ordered the building of the capital Fatehpur Sikri, the City of Victory, where he lived for fourteen years (1571-1585); he developed and spread the arts which Humayun, his father, had imported from Persia and, together with several Persian painters, created a study with more than a hundred artists to execute sublime works, the style of which spread through all the provinces of his realm. The exhibition, Akbar. The Great Emperor of India, underlines his cultural and artistic, political and military achievements and profound religious spirit and exceptional broadmindedness. 

Turnover (attr.)
Gods asuras change the ocean of milk into butter
Illustration from the Book of war (Razmnama) 1598-99
Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper
29.5 x 16.5 cm
The Free Library of Philadelphia

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Fondazione Roma-Arte-Musei has organised the film review Bollywood Film Meeting Roma which aims to offer a glance at the new trends which are becoming popular in cinema productions in the Hindi language of Mumbai. The review, created by Gian Carlo Calza and curated by Sabrina Ciolfi, Indologist and connoisseur of Indian films at the Università degli Studi in Milan, will be held in the Teatro Quirinetta. 

This event is supported by the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, and has been accomplished through the involvement of the Italian Embassy in New Delhi and Indian Embassy in Rome.  

15/10/12

Expo Photo Voici Paris, Centre Pompidou, Beaubourg, Paris - Modernités photographiques, 1920-1950 - La collection Christian Bouqueret


VOICI PARIS Modernités photographiques, 1920-1950 - La collection Christian Bouqueret - Centre Pompidou, Beaubourg, Paris
Commissaires d'exposition : Quentin Bajac, Clément Chéroux
17 octobre 2012 - 14 janvier 2013

L'exposition Voici Paris au Centre Pompidou à Beaubourg, Paris, repose une sélection de tirages de l'important fond de 7000 photographies de la collection de Christian Bouqueret acquis par le musée en 2011. Les 300 photographies exposées datent des années 1920-1950 et sont l'oeuvre de nombreux photographes parmi lesquels figurent de grands noms de la photographie qui étaient à Paris au cours de cette période. Dans les années 1920 et 1930, de nombreux artistes, dont des photographes, étaient attirés par Paris, reconnue comme l'une des capitales artistiques les plus dynamiques et créatives au niveau international. Parmi les tirages exposés figurent ainsi des clichés de photographes hongrois, américains, allemands, aux côtés des photographes français.

A travers les oeuvres de Man Ray, André Kertész, Dora Maar, Germaine Krull, Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Pierre Dubreuil, Jean Moral, André Steiner, Claude Cahun ou encore René Zuber (liste complète ci-dessous), l'exposition Voici Paris présente les courants qui constituent les tendances visuelles des années 1920-1950 en mettant en lumière l’étendue et la diversité des domaines abordés par les photographes provenant d’horizons variés : avant-gardistes, reporters, illustrateurs, photographes commerciaux. Voici Paris commence ainsi avec les expérimentations photographiques de Man Ray et l’émergence du surréalisme, se poursuit avec les questionnements politiques et sociaux et s’ouvre sur l’avènement de la presse illustrée.  

C’est donc un panorama de la création photographique parisienne entre 1920 et 1950 que le Centre Pompidou invite à découvrir. Le panorama s’ouvre avec les surréalistes et « L’œil nouveau » qu’ils portent sur la modernité. C’est le temps de l’affirmation de la photographie comme art spécifique. Consacrée aux années 1930, la seconde section illustre l’impact de la crise de 1929 sur les sujets photographiques désormais tournés vers la vie sociale et la photographie humaniste. Dans une troisième partie, c’est la presse, premier lieu d’expression et de diffusion pour les photographes, qui devient « L’imagier moderne ». Source de revenus, les journaux mais aussi les livres et la publicité permettent aux photographes de mener parallèlement des expérimentations toujours plus élaborées sur l’image. Se révèle ainsi « L’intérieur de la vue », titre du quatrième volet. L’exposition s’achève sur un « Retour à l’ordre », de nombreux photographes prenant le contre-pied de la Nouvelle Vision des surréalistes en remettant le classicisme au goût du jour.

Un catalogue publié par les Editions du Centre Pompidou replace la collection dans un contexte historique et présente l’originalité de la démarche d’un collectionneur singulier, Christian Bouqueret, historien, galeriste et pionnier dans l’art de la collection de photographies.

Voici Paris - Liste des photographes exposés

Pierre Adam
Laure Albin Guillot
Marcel Arthaud
Aurel Bauh
Erwin Blumenfeld
Jacques-André Boiffard
Pierre Boucher
Brassaï (Gyula Halász)
Marianne Breslauer
Luis Bunuel
Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob)
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Yvonne Chevalier
René Clair (René Chomette)
Pierre Dubreuil
Germaine Dulac
Nora Dumas (Nora Telkes de Kelenfold)
Emeric Feher
Gertrude Fehr
Raymond Gid (Raymond Grunberg)
Florence Henri
Georges Hugnet
Pierre Ichac
Pierre Jamet
André Kertész (Andor Kertész)
Willy Kessels
François Kollar (František Kollar)
Germaine Krull
Ergy Landau (Erzsi Landau)
Fernand Léger
Lucien Lorelle
Eli Lotar (Eliazar Lotar Teodoresco)
Dora Maar (Henriette Theodora Markovitch)
Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky)
Daniel Masclet
Lucien Mazenod
Jean Moral
Martin Munkacsi
Jean Painlevé
André Papillon
Gaston Paris
Roger Parry
René-Jacques (René Giton)
Hans Richter
Jean Roubier
Albert Rudomine
Roger Schall
Emmanuel Sougez
André Steiner
Sasha Stone (Aleksander Steinsapir)
Adorjan et Olga von Wlassics (Studio Manassé)
Maurice Tabard
François Tuefferd
Raoul Ubac (Rudolf Ubach)
Moï Ver (Moshé Raviv-Vorobeichic)
Pierre Verger
André Vigneau
Ylla (Kamilla Koffler)
René Zuber

Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'art moderne 
Niveau 4 - Galerie d'art graphique
www.centrepompidou.fr