André Kertész
14 Jul - 28 Aug 2011
ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ
L'intime plaisir de lire
14 July - 28 August, 2011
An exhibition organised by Jeu de Paume, Paris, and the Visual Library of Architecture and Patrimony of the Ministry of Culture and Communication in France
The theme of reading:
Be they in a garden, on a bus, in a cafe, a library or a lobby, on a terrace or in bed, at school or at war, standing, sitting or lying down, readers are everywhere: in a different universe and in a time which is not the present. They are within their reading matter, their thoughts, within what they find out, what they feel; they are in another world, real or imaginary.
This spatial, temporal, affective and spiritual disparity has been photographed by André Kertész with the inside knowledge of the initiated spirit. He has done it gently, without interfering with, or perturbing the reader whom he knows so well. Thus we too, thanks to him, share the intimate joy of reading and seeing images. Of being informed, of knowing, of relishing words, of travelling, of feeling connected with strangers or friends, of appreciating original emotions and feelings, of discovering novelty.
This exhibition brings together a selection of photographs from the collection of the Visual Library of Architecture and Patrimony of the Ministry of Culture and Communication in France.
Born in Budapest in 1894, André Kertész shoots his first negative in 1912. After the war, he settles in Paris in 1925, where he discovers the appeal of street walks and of wandering on the banks of the Seine. At Montparnasse he encounters fellow Hungarian artists and many literary and artistic personalities (Mondrian, Chagall, Zadkine, Foujita, Colette, etc...) A chronicler of everyday life, he describes with deep insight the most trivial moments of life. At the apex of his career he decides to leave for New York in 1936, signing a contract with the Keystone Agency.
Among the numerous publications dedicated to him we mention: Soixante ans de photographie 1912-1972 (Sixty Years of Photography), J’aime Paris (I Love Paris) (1974), Distorsions / Distortions (1976), Hungarian Memories (1982). He spends more and more time in France and in 1984 he donates all his negatives and personal documentation to the French State (to the Photographic Patrimony). He dies in New York in 1985.
A classic among classics, a master to many of his colleagues, André Kertész is a major figure in the history of photography. A synthesis of an ethical and aesthetic code, his work recuperates or precedes various currents of the Avant-garde, at the same time remaining attached to the values of Humanism.
L'intime plaisir de lire
14 July - 28 August, 2011
An exhibition organised by Jeu de Paume, Paris, and the Visual Library of Architecture and Patrimony of the Ministry of Culture and Communication in France
The theme of reading:
Be they in a garden, on a bus, in a cafe, a library or a lobby, on a terrace or in bed, at school or at war, standing, sitting or lying down, readers are everywhere: in a different universe and in a time which is not the present. They are within their reading matter, their thoughts, within what they find out, what they feel; they are in another world, real or imaginary.
This spatial, temporal, affective and spiritual disparity has been photographed by André Kertész with the inside knowledge of the initiated spirit. He has done it gently, without interfering with, or perturbing the reader whom he knows so well. Thus we too, thanks to him, share the intimate joy of reading and seeing images. Of being informed, of knowing, of relishing words, of travelling, of feeling connected with strangers or friends, of appreciating original emotions and feelings, of discovering novelty.
This exhibition brings together a selection of photographs from the collection of the Visual Library of Architecture and Patrimony of the Ministry of Culture and Communication in France.
Born in Budapest in 1894, André Kertész shoots his first negative in 1912. After the war, he settles in Paris in 1925, where he discovers the appeal of street walks and of wandering on the banks of the Seine. At Montparnasse he encounters fellow Hungarian artists and many literary and artistic personalities (Mondrian, Chagall, Zadkine, Foujita, Colette, etc...) A chronicler of everyday life, he describes with deep insight the most trivial moments of life. At the apex of his career he decides to leave for New York in 1936, signing a contract with the Keystone Agency.
Among the numerous publications dedicated to him we mention: Soixante ans de photographie 1912-1972 (Sixty Years of Photography), J’aime Paris (I Love Paris) (1974), Distorsions / Distortions (1976), Hungarian Memories (1982). He spends more and more time in France and in 1984 he donates all his negatives and personal documentation to the French State (to the Photographic Patrimony). He dies in New York in 1985.
A classic among classics, a master to many of his colleagues, André Kertész is a major figure in the history of photography. A synthesis of an ethical and aesthetic code, his work recuperates or precedes various currents of the Avant-garde, at the same time remaining attached to the values of Humanism.