Dorothea Lange, faire parler les images

Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures

Entrée de l’exposition Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, February 9, 2020 – May 9, 2020. © 2020 The Museum of Modern Art. Photo: John Wronn

Le Museum of Modern Art a développé très tôt des liens profonds avec la photographe Dorothea LANGE (1895-1965). Elle contribue à la toute première exposition de photographie du musée en 1940 et participe à la préparation de sa première rétrospective, qui ouvrira en 1966, trois mois après sa mort. La modernité de son œil et son parti pris engagé n’ont pas pris une ride et, dans les salles de vente comme dans les galeries de musée, ses mots-images continuent de résonner.

Words and Pictures

Ses yeux sont perdus dans le lointain, comme si son regard était tout ce qui lui restait pour s’échapper de sa condition. Deux enfants l’entourent, le troisième sur ses genoux. Elle doit être jeune, mais semble avoir vécu un siècle. Migrant Mother est la photographie la plus connue de Dorothea Lange (1895-1965). Le MoMA lui consacre jusqu’au 9 mai sa plus grande rétrospective depuis plus de 50 ans, « Dorothea Lange : Words and Pictures »… dans cet ordre. Une centaine de photographies issues des collections du musée, mais également des archives, et notamment des éléments de correspondance, des publications et des travaux universitaires contemporains permettent d’examiner la manière dont les mots – les siens et les nôtres – influencent la manière de comprendre son travail.

Lange, Dorothea

Dorothea Lange. Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California. March 1936. Gelatin silver print, 11 1/8 x 8 9/16″ (28.3 x 21.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase

Rare photographe a avoir été reconnue de son vivant, Dorothea Lange naît Dorothea Nutzhorn près de New York. Après des études à la Columbia University et des cours de photographie auprès de Clarence Hudson I WHITE (1871-1925), elle décide de troquer la côte Est pour la côte Ouest et prend le nom de jeune fille de sa mère pour ouvrir un studio à San Francisco, en 1918. Dix ans plus tard, c’est la crise de 1929. La Grande Dépression jette sur les routes des milliers de travailleurs en recherche d’emploi, et Dorothea quitte son atelier pour les suivre. Elle est bientôt employée par la Resettlement Administration (devenue plus tard la Farm Security Administration) pour documenter la réalité des conditions de vie des ouvriers agricoles, dramatiquement impactée par les conditions climatiques catastrophiques et le krach boursier. Son premier rapport de terrain a une véritable répercussion, et passe même entre les mains des locataires de la Maison Blanche : une aide d’urgence est débloquée pour aider les compagnons d’infortune du Migratory Cotton Picker, Eloy, Arizona. La FSA, consciente du pouvoir informatif et émotionnel de ce média encore sous-utilisé au niveau gouvernemental, réunit une petite équipe dont émergera certains des plus grands maîtres de la photographie du XXe siècle : Walker EVANS, Russell LEE, Arthur ROTHSTEIN ou Ben SHAHN. L’exposition étudie la carrière de Lange dans un ordre chronologique, des portraits de studio à la Grande Dépression et à son travail pour diverses agences gouvernementales, en particulier ce documentaire accablant sur les conditions de vie des Américains d’origine japonaise, internés dans des camps au lendemain de l’attaque de Pearl Harbor, si dérangeant qu’il fut censuré par l’administration Roosevelt et publié seulement en 2006.

Ses images sont très parlantes, elles rendent l’atmosphère générale, les conditions de vie des portraits, le désespoir et la résignation, l’espièglerie du regard et l’innocence, la colère et la fatigue. Et pourtant leur auteure n’a jamais pensé que ses photographies seules étaient suffisantes. Toute la controverse autour de son iconique portrait de Migrant Mother lui donne raison : on peut faire dire tout et n’importe quoi à une image. Son travail avait une relation compliquée avec les mots, et l’artiste voulait être aussi juste avec son stylo qu’elle l’était avec son appareil. Une lettre à John Szarkowski de juin 1965 reprise dans l’exposition rend compte de cette incessante recherche : « Suis en train de travailler sur les légendes. Ce n’est pas un simple travail administratif, mais un tout processus, car elles devraient non seulement contenir des informations factuelles, mais également des pistes sur les états d’esprit, les liens et le sens. Ce sont des passerelles, et en expliquant la fonction des légendes, comme je le fais maintenant, je crois que nous étendons le champs d’action de notre médium. » Dorothea Lange voyait la photographie comme le principal moyen de son engagement social, choisissant de sauver de l’oubli les laissés-pour-compte et d’informer sur la réalité des histoires humaines de son temps.

Son œuvre rencontre très tôt un large public, car les photographies étant propriété de l’État, elles sont publiées sans demande de paiement ce qui contribue à leur propagation rapide. Près de 80 ans plus tard, la charge émotionnelle est toujours aussi efficace. Les collectionneurs honorent l’artiste de nombreuse enchères en salles de vente. Le marché de Dorothea Lange a connu un rebond après son record absolu de 2005 pour«White Angel Bread Line» chez Sotheby’s NY emporté à 822 400 $. Ce fut une année en or, avec un pic du chiffre d’affaires qui n’avait plus été approché avant 2019. L’année dernière en effet, la transactions se sont accélérées – avec 40 lots vendus contre 12 en 2018 – et le produit de ventes annuel de l’artiste (près de 1,2m$) lui a permis de faire un bond en avant dans le classement mondial, 2300e place à la 876e place. Nul doute que l’exposition du MoMA permet de remettre l’artiste à l’honneur en salles de vente : ce mardi 25 février, Swann Galleries New York propose pas moins de 9 photographies, des tirages attendus entre 3.000 et 6.000$ en moyenne.

Source : Dorothea Lange, faire parler les images – Artmarketinsight – Artprice.com

Frank Lloyd Wright | HOW TO SEE Rosenwald School with Mabel Wilson

In the 1920s, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a school for the Rosenwald Fund, a philanthropic organization which built over 5,000 schools for African American students who, under Jim Crow laws, were required to pay for their own educational facilities despite paying taxes. Mabel Wilson explores Wright’s plans for the Rosenwald School as well as the architect’s interest in progressive education reform throughout his career.

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Ad Reinhardt | WideWalls

The advocate of the philosophy he called Art-as-Art, Ad Reinhardt was a prominent painter, writer, critic and educator whose work has been associated with the Abstract Expressionism although it had its origins in Geometric Abstraction, announcing the Minimal and Conceptual Art and Monochrome Painting. As a member of the American Abstract Artists, he was a part of the group gathered at Betty Parsons Gallery that became known as Abstract Expressionism. Recognizable for his cartoons that made fun of the art, Reinhardt is also remembered for the Black or Ultimate Paintings that he claimed to be the “last paintings” that anyone can paint.

Ad Reinhardt – Abstract Painting, 1948, photo via cavetocanvas.com

Early Life and Decision to Study Art History

Adolph Frederick Reinhardt was born on December 24, 1913, in Buffalo, New York. He showed an interest in art from his early childhood, working as an illustrator for the school’s newspapers. Rejecting several scholarships from art schools, he chose to study art history at Columbia University in New York, under the famous Meyer Shapiro who gave him a solid background in theory and humanities through latest trends and contemporary approaches. Shapiro also had a great influence on Reinhardt’s political views, introducing him to the radical leftist Marxist believing that he adhered for the rest of his life. In 1935, he began artistic training at the national Academy of Design and at the American Artists School in New York, falling under the influence of two prosperous painters, Carl Holty and Francis Criss who worked under the postulates of the Cubism and Constructivism.

Reinhardt studied art history at Columbia University in New York under the famous Meyer Shapiro
Ad Reinhardt – Abstract Painting, 1960, photo via art-agenda.com (Left) – Red Abstract, 1952, photo via quotesgram.com

Strivings for an Absolute Abstract Forms

During the late 30’s Reinhardt was among the artists employed by the government WPA project, which proved to be important for his further career, considering his acquaintance with Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky with whom he became a life-long friend. Creating in a realm of the geometric abstraction, his work starting to show the aspects of gestural abstraction. In this period, he worked a freelance illustrating job for several New York publications. Constantly striving for an absolute form of abstraction deprived of narratives or any kind of reference to anything outside the canvas, Reinhardt could no longer find himself in Abstract Expressionism, charging it for the opulence of emotional indications and a cult of the ego. Highly influenced by the art of Kazimir Malevich and Russian Suprematist theories, he became occupied with solid fields of color arranged in geometric forms of squares and rectangles, directly inspired by Malevich’s Black Square (1915). In his theoretical writings Reinhardt has brought these ideas into connection with complex philosophies, as Neo-Platonism, Negation Theology and Zen Buddhism.

Reinhardt was highly influenced by the art of Kazimir Malevich and Russian Suprematist theoriesAd Reinhardt – Untitled, 1966, photo via cavetocanvas.com (Left) – Abstract Painting Blue, photo via mutualart.com

Painting in Red, Blue and Black

Believing in an absolutely pure, ordered and balanced abstract art, in 1950’s Reinhardt began his experiments using the single color in the series of paintings. He started with Red paintings, then the Blue ones and finally came to the Black that marked his career for the rest of his life. Bringing the medium of painting to its limits of expression, he tended to create absolute zero, the end of the light. Challenging the viewer’s patience, making him stunned by the complete absence of narrative, palette, or any other element that everybody was used to, Reinhardt explained that everything is on the move, so the art should be still. He created collaborative art pieces, the ones whose existence were impossible without the viewer’s presence. As our experience of particular painting alters, instead of the inert images, these works became events. They change in every different feeling of their audience. Read more (…) : Ad Reinhardt | WideWalls

He was in a constant search for the pure and balanced abstract art

Top Image : Ad Reinhardt portrait, 1966, photo via mythgallery.com

The Incredible Life and Collection of Peggy Guggenheim | WideWalls

The Life of Peggy Guggenheim

Marguerite ”Peggy” Guggenheim was born in New York in 1898 to a Jewish family. Her biographer Jacqueline Bograd Weld said that it wasn’t just Marguerite who was fascinating as a subject, but that her entire family was full of wonderful eccentricities. Her mother Florette Seligman who came from a family of bankers was known to repeat everything three times, while one of her aunts used to sing most of what she said, possibly leading her husband to an early death. Her father, Benjamin Guggenheim was member of the prominent mining family. They had two more daughters – Hazel and Benita, who were Peggy’s only companions in her childhood and who both lost their lives tragically as young women. The family enjoyed the wealth and comforts of high society. For Peggy, those early years of bourgeois lifestyle were insufferably boring. When her father died on the RMS Titanic she was 13 years old and her family fortune was already decimated. At the age of 19 she inherited her father’s money. She called herself a poor Guggenheim, which was true only in a sense that her inherited wealth was considerably less than that of her cousins. This was just one more thing setting her apart from what she knew. Peggy craved adventure, fulfillment and recognition. Rebelling against aristocratic lifestyle and future as some rich guy’s wife, she found a job in the avant-garde bookshop The Sunrise Turn, where she was exposed to artist and radical thinkers. A year later, in 1921, she moved to Paris, to a city that was giving birth to an art revolution. She marveled at the bohemian world, sharing it intimately with women and men like Kiki de Montparnasse, Man Ray, James Joyce and Ezra Pond. It was in Paris where her love for sex and art was fully awakened.

News is that Man Ray wrote many letters to GuggenheimLeft: Man Ray – Peggy Guggenheim, 1924, photo via jewishcurrents.org / Right: Peggy Guggenheim in in her bedroom; Behind her Alexander Calder’s Silver Bed Head (1945–46), 1961, photo via provokr.com

Lire la suite : The Incredible Life and Collection of Peggy Guggenheim | WideWalls

David Nash and the mystery of Wooden Boulder, his missing sculpture

David Nash’s most celebrated artwork has vanished. But what does it mean?

For 35 years, the artist David Nash mapped the progress of Wooden Boulder, his ‘free-range sculpture’, as it journeyed down the River Dwyryd in Wales. But now the gargantuan oak sphere has vanished.

James Fox investigates. (...)

Source : David Nash and the mystery of Wooden Boulder, his missing sculpture