Reality Revisited – Photography from the Moderna Museet collection

Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Reality Revisited
Photography from the Moderna Museet collection
9 May – 20 September, 2009

The second major photo exhibition at Moderna Museet this spring takes a look at the 1970s. More than 300 photos from the Moderna Museet collection cover major portfolios of work by photographers including Larry Clark, Duane Michals, Bill Owens, Eva Klasson, Anders Petersen, Arthur Tress and Melissa Shook.

Other photographers are represented by a smaller number of images, and the exhibition is complemented by selected works by forerunners who have inspired and influenced their work.

Larry Clark

Larry Clark
New York City, Speedy and Barb. From the Teenage Lust series, 1968
© Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York

The title of the exhibition alludes to the way photographers in the 1970s generally based their work on, or referred to, the reality they were living in. Many explored new ways of portraying real life – while others searched for ways of creating photos beyond the everyday. This exhibition reveals a progression from distinctly documentary projects in the early years of the decade, to the more subjective, surrealist-influenced or body-oriented subject matter towards the end of the1970s.

The “documentary” concept was central during this period. A fundamental aspect of the genre is a trust in photography as a possibility to portray reality objectively, and the camera’s potential to reveal hidden social injustices. However, this precept began to be called in question, and many of the issues that preoccupied photographers in the1970s are still being explored by contemporary practitioners: form and content, subjectivity and objectivity, art and politics.

All the featured photographers stem from the genre of classic black-and-white photography. Using different approaches, they applied the medium and developed their own styles of expression. After the Second World War, street photography and subjective photography experienced rising popularity, along with fashion photography. It became possible, again, to travel to the large cities, which grew into creative meeting places for the generation of photographers who embarked on their careers in the1960s and experienced a climax before postmodern photo-based art came to the fore in the early 1980s.

Christer Strömholm

Christer Strömholm
Hiroshima, 1963
© Christer Strömholm/Stromholm Estate

Melissa Shook

Melissa Shook
May 30, 1973
© Melissa Shook

The history of how the collection was created helps to explain the strong focus on American and Swedish photography in this exhibition. In 1971, Fotografiska Museet was inaugurated as an independent department of Moderna Museet. Several study tours were made to the USA by the curators in the mid-70s, resulting in major exhibitions and acquisitions. Fotografiska Museet was fully integrated with Moderna Museet in 1998, which thus obtained a rich photographic treasure

Courtesy Moderna Museet
Images © Their respective owners

Links

• Moderna Museet, Stockholm
• Interview with curator Anna Tellgren [in Swedish]

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Photo of the Week – François Gillet – ”Sea-slug Dreaming”

”Sea-slug Dreaming” or Comp. 45

• by François Gillet

This week, we are proud and honored to present a work by renowed photographer François Gillet, to whom we express our gratitude.

”Sea-slug Dreaming”
or Comp. 45

© François Gillet

[click on photo to enlarge]

• About ”Sea-slug Dreaming”

Extraordinary calligraphy from the sea-slugs in the sand in the water-holes, hieroglyph from Ancient Egypt, Aboriginal painting, signs from the unknown? Strangely I saw very similar shapes from the air, 10.000 meters away..
If I could bring forward the sacred from our Earth

The ”Sea-slug Dreaming” is a mosaic made of 9 pictures, part of a triptych ”Le Pays du Rêve” made in its turn of 3×9x9 pictures in total 243 pictures

In the beginning of 2007, in a deep urge for new experiences and inspiration, we went off, my ”muse” and I, on a three months journey through the Australian continent. I slowly gathered at first a book of studies which soon revealed to be an inspiring journey in form, colour and abstraction. Back to Sweden, I spent the rest of the year going through this amazing material and came to the idea of gathering the photos into mosaics, which suddenly provided me with a huge narrative possibility. This first work ”Beyond Mystery Bay” has eyes wide-opened on nature and the untouched, but also reveals that nature herself has eyes on you. Little by little I became aware of the Aboriginal philosophy, their devotion and respect for Mother Earth and could not help but returning to Australia, to carry on with my work, only this time I was aware of the Dreamtime. So we drove another 3 months through this huge continent, feeling, observing, searching.
Since our return in april 08, I have not stopped working on my new material. Few times in life have I felt such energy. The technique I used for this new work does contrasts with my usual 10×8 large-format camera; a light digital camera which allows full spontaneity. But gathering my mosaics is not unlike my studio compositions. The actual ”weaving” of these simple pictures provide me with an unlimited amount of possibilities. Very much like composing music. Through the years I have never manipulated neither retouched any of my pictures. I am only trying to show what is there and beyond.

Last november I was able to show an installation of an early version of ”Pays du Rêve” at the Stockholm Photo-Fair, just for one week-end.

François Gillet

• Biographical note

François Gillet was born in Normandy. In his teens, he crossed the Channel and studied language and commerce in Bournemouth. Although his prime interest had always been painting, in the late sixties, he took up a three- year course in photography at the Bournemouth & Poole College of Art and Design.

His persistent taste for the unusual took him to Sweden in his early twenties. It was there that he discovered the large-format camera, which was to become his main tool.

After several impressive publications in French Zoom magazine François Gillet started working internationally. He shows an ability to feel at ease with demanding subjects, the non spectacular, one could say the banalities, judging that banality does not exist, but is barely due to our own perception. His approach is contemplative, which also often means, time-consuming.

François Gillet lives in the “margin” of a bigger city, only half an hour from the centre, on a small island just outside Stockholm.

François Gillet

• François Gillet – Homepage

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Calle Sophie – Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles

Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles

Calle Sophie
27.05.2009 > 13.09.2009

L’exposition rétrospective de l’artiste française Sophie Calle contient une vingtaine de projets autobiographiques qui retracent sa vie suivant un fil chronologique.

Sophie Calle

Sophie CALLE
“Où et quand? Lourdes” 2005/2008 (détail)
Photographies, textes, encadrements, néon, marbre 141 cm x 15 m de long
© SABAM Belgium 2009
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris / Miami ; Arndt & Partner, Berlin / Zurich
Photographie : Florian Kleinefenn

Sophie Calle est écrivain, artiste narrative, photographe, cinéaste ou même détective. Elle est sans doute un peu de chaque, selon les personnages qu’elle interprète, les rituels qu’elle imagine, les morceaux de sa vie qu’elle raconte et les moyens dont elle se saisit pour les raconter. L’artiste exploite fréquemment la méthode de l’enquête et son œuvre consiste le plus souvent en l’association de la photographie et de l’écrit. Sophie Calle se met en scène dans ses productions artistiques, mêlant habilement sa vie personnelle et son projet artistique. Elle invente ses propres règles du jeu afin d’ « améliorer la vie », lui donnant ainsi une structure, un sens.

Pour BOZAR, Sophie Calle a choisi de « s’exposer », en axant cette rétrospective autour d’œuvres retraçant sa vie. L’exposition CALLE SOPHIE se déroule suivant un fil chronologique, sur le mode d’un compte à rebours, balisé d’une vingtaine de projets autobiographiques. Une voix, celle de Frédéric Mitterrand, accompagne le visiteur et raconte à sa manière cette vie, qu’elle met en scène pour la faire passer au stade de fiction, pour donner à entendre une « histoire ».

Sophie Calle

Sophie CALLE
Le Nez 2000
© Jean-Baptiste Mondino.
Sabam Belgique 2009
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Arndt & Partner, Paula Cooper Gallery

When I was fourteen my grandparents suggested that I needed plastic surgery. They made an appointment with a famous cosmetic surgeon, and it was decided that my nose should be straightened, that a scar on my left leg should be covered up with a piece of skin taken from my ass and that my ears should be pulled back. I had doubts, but they reassured me, I could change my mind up until the very last moment. In the end, though, it was Doctor F. himself who put an end to my dilemma. Two days before the operation, he committed suicide.

Sophie Calle

Sophie CALLE
“Les seins miraculeux” 2001
Photographie N/B, aluminium, texte, encadrements (x2) 100 x 170 cm + 50 x 50 cm
Remerciements à Jean-Baptiste Mondino © SABAM Belgium 2009
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris / Miami ; Arndt & Partner, Berlin / Zurich ; Koyanagi, Tokyo ; Gallery Paula Cooper, NY

I was a flat-chested teenager. Still, wanting to be like my friends, I bought a bra, a soutien-gorge which, of course, I didn’t need. My mother, who possessed a magnificent bosom and a sharp wit, called it my “soutien-rien” – my support-nothing. I can still hear her words today. Over the years that followed my chest slowly pushed out. Nothing to write home about, though. Suddenly, in 1992, a transformation occurred. In the space of six months, spontaneously, I had proper tits: no treatments, no operations. A miracle. I swear. I was thrilled, but not really surprised. I put this feat down to twenty years of frustration, envy, dreams and sighs.

Sophie Calle

Sophie CALLE
“Suite vénitienne” (détail) 1980
Ensemble de 81 éléments : 55 photographies N/B, 17,1 x 23,6 cm (chacun) + 23 textes de 30,2 x 21,7 cm (chacun) et de 3 cartes
© SABAM Belgium 2009
Courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris / Miami ; Arndt & Partner, Berlin / Zurich ; Koyanagi, Tokyo ; Gallery Paula Cooper, NY

Sophie Calle, née en 1953, vit et travaille à Paris. Elle a présenté M’as-tu vue ? à Beaubourg en 2004. Choisie pour représenter la France lors de la dernière Biennale de Venise (2007) où elle était par ailleurs invitée par le commissaire général dans le pavillon international, elle y a présenté Prenez soin de vous comme elle l’a fait à la Bibliothèque Nationale de France l’année d’après.

Visuels © Tous droits réservés

Links

• Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles

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Photo of the week – Giuseppe Pasquali – “Penitent Got Out Bus # 62″

“Penitent Got Out Bus # 62″

• by Giuseppe Pasquali

This week, we are thrilled to present a work by Italian photographer Giuseppe Pasquali, to whom we express our warm thanks for his participation.

“Penitent Got Out Bus # 62″

© Giuseppe Pasquali

[click on photo to enlarge]

• About “Penitent Got Out Bus # 62″

This photo is part of “Walkin’ Talkin’ Blues in B/W”, a photographic project dedicated to the streets of Rome.

One summer early morning in 2009 I got out, camera in hand, to get some shots of Piazza San Pietro under a beautiful, warm light. There were long, strong shadows and no people around. As soon as I had parked my car not far from Via della Conciliazione a Bus stopped by and this man got out praying. I only had enough time to raise the camera and shoot two poses that he suddenly disappeared inside a nearby Church like a ghost.

Prof. Umberto Eco wrote: “A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a machine for generating interpretations.” [Postscript to The Name of the Rose (1984)],

and a photo is as well an interpretation machine; so I will stay silent and act the part of that distant runner on the top left of this photography – one of the vertexes of the triangle that the gentle gods of photography submitted to my lucky eyes on that Sunday morning.

Giuseppe Pasquali

• Biographical note

Giuseppe Pasquali lives and works in Rome.

He was born in Tuscany, Italy – in 1964.

Street photography became his specialty since 1981, when he toured Italy in search of local traditional events and celebrations.

He studied semiotics, foreign literatures and ancient indo-european languages at the University of Pisa and got a degree “magna cum laude” in Linguistics.

He attended several street and creative photography workshops during his working experience in the United Kingdom.

Federico Scianna, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Henry Cartier – Bresson, Mario Giacomelli were and are among his favourite photographers: their works have surely influenced his style.

Some of his works have been and are currently exhibited in galleries and shows in Italy and abroad.

Today he shoots mostly on assignement or self assigned projects (lifestyle, events and street) that are submitted to galleries and magazines.

An exhibition of 21 works of Giuseppe Pasquali titled “Vita Romana” is held at Kr-line Art Gallery in Brugge, Belgium, from April 3 to September 1, 2009.

Links about Giuseppe Pasquali

• Portfolio (Photo.net)
• Current exhibit: Vita Romana / Kr-line Art Gallery , Brugge (Belgium), from April 3 to September 1 2009
• Giuseppe Pasquali Photography on zenfolio
• The Online Photographer Random Excellence Page Recognition (march 2009): Dog and Kite
• “Walkin’ (Talkin’) Blues in B/W” (on-line exhibit for the Turkish e-photo magazine Fotoritim):

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Le Jardin de Monet à Giverny / Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny

Le Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny

Le Jardin de Monet à Giverny : l’invention d’un paysage
Du 1er mai au 15 août 2009

Après des années difficiles, la carrière de Claude Monet prend un cours favorable quand il s’installe en 1883 à Giverny. C’est alors qu’il commence à connaître un succès réel, et qu’il est reconnu comme un des peintres majeurs de son époque. Pour lui, une nouvelle vie commence et elle s’accompagne d’un renouvellement profond de son travail.

Après avoir été l’initiateur de l’impressionnisme, la révolution picturale la plus significative du XIXe, Monet devient un des plus grands peintres français du XXe siècle et le jardin de Giverny est au cœur de cette évolution. En inventant un motif qu’il peindra par la suite, l’artiste inverse en effet la démarche traditionnelle du peintre paysagiste.

Claude Monet

Claude Monet,
Nymphéas, vers 1914,
Huile sur toile
135 x 145 cm,
coll particulière © Tous droits réservés

L’exposition au Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny s’organise en trois sections, elle comporte une trentaine d’œuvres peintes, des photographies et documents d’archives. Entièrement consacrée au jardin de Giverny, elle met en évidence cette phase essentielle du parcours artistique de Claude Monet. Des œuvres remarquables sont présentées, dont certaines jamais exposées.

• 1. L’invention d’un paysage (1883 – 1904)

À Giverny pour la première fois, Claude Monet, qui a toujours aimé et peint la nature et les jardins, a l’occasion d’en dessiner lui‐même les contours. Dans le Clos normand original, il organise des parterres d’une profusion florale inouïe. Il crée ensuite de toutes pièces un fascinant jardin d’eau où la nature et son reflet se mêlent inextricablement. L’élaboration en est lente et laborieuse : elle nécessite des acquisitions de terrains et des démarches administratives contraignantes.

Ces transformations durent près de vingt ans ‐ de 1883 à 1904 ‐ et l’artiste modifiera encore les contours de l’étang en 1910. Au cours de cette période, Monet peint ses premières séries, les Peupliers, les Meules, les Cathédrales, les Matinées sur la Seine, aux environs de sa maison. Il voyage aussi pour trouver de nouveaux motifs : notamment à Bordighera, en Norvège, en Hollande ou à Londres. Mais, à l’exception d’un petit nombre d’œuvres peintes entre 1887 et 1897, il n’explore pas encore les possibilités picturales du jardin. Son élaboration sera donc évoquée, étape par étape, par des photographies, des lettres et des documents d’archives mis en scène.

Claude Monet

Claude Monet,
Le Bassin aux nymphéas : harmonie verte, 1899
Huile sur toile, 89 x 93.5 cm,
© Musée d’Orsay, Dist RMN
© Hervé Lewandowski

Claude Monet

Claude Monet,
Le Jardin de l’artiste à Giverny, 1900,
huile sur toile,81 x 92 cm,
© Musée d’Orsay, Dist RMN
© Hervé Lewandowski

• 2. Monet peintre du XXe siècle (1899 – 1926)

Tout change au tournant du siècle. En 1899, Monet commence à peindre le jardin de Giverny qui devient rapidement son motif de prédilection. Les formats, ronds, carrés, allongés, sont de plus en plus variés et de plus en plus grands. Les compositions, souvent défocalisées, sont moins lisibles. Progressivement, Monet invente un nouveau langage pictural ; il travaille désormais avec lenteur et difficulté comme en témoigne sa correspondance. De moins en moins objectives, ces toiles sont achevées ou entièrement réalisées à l’atelier. Au début des années 1910, l’artiste se consacre aux Grandes Décorations peintes dont l’aboutissement sera l’ensemble de l’Orangerie.

Les peintres de l’abstraction américaine des années 1950 se sont justement proclamés ses héritiers, mais Monet n’a jamais rompu avec le sujet. L’immersion dans la nature, la proximité du jardin lui sont nécessaires et lui inspirent un lyrisme puissant, absent de ses premières oeuvres impressionnistes. À Giverny, Monet cesse d’être le peintre de la vie moderne et devient le chantre d’une nature foisonnante.

Claude Monet

Claude Monet, Les Nymphéas, 1904,
huile sur toile, 87 x 93 cm, Ville du
Havre, musée Malraux
© Florian Kleinefenn.

• 3. L’élaboration d’une image (1905 – 1926)

Monet, qui avait inventé l’impressionnisme en peignant la Grenouillère côte à côte avec Renoir, a rarement permis aux autres peintres de représenter le jardin de Giverny qui est resté quasi exclusivement « son » motif. Les photographies de Monet dans son jardin sont en outre très nombreuses et furent largement diffusées.

C’est en 1905 que Louis Vauxcelles publie les premières photographies du jardin où l’artiste pose en gentleman-farmer, une figure qui s’efface rapidement au profit de celle du patriarche de Giverny qui s’imposera à la postérité. Les dernières photographies de Monet dans son jardin sont prises par Nickolas Muray vers 1926. Le regard de l’artiste y est caché par des lunettes et elles évoquent irrésistiblement la figure d’Homère, le poète aveugle.

Une trentaine de photographies témoignent de la mise en place de la nouvelle image de l’artiste.

Claude Monet

Thérèse Bonney,
Claude Monet sur le pont japonais dans son jardin à
Giverny, vers 1920,
tirage original, 22.5 x 17.4 cm,
© collection du musée Clemenceau

Claude Monet

Nickolas Muray,
Claude Monet dans son jardin à Giverny, 1926,
tirage original, 19 x 23.5 cm,
© collection du musée
Clemenceau

Visuels – Courtoisie Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny
Images © Tous droits réservés

Links

• Le Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny – site internet

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