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1/11/2006

Americans

Kunsthalle Wien, Wien

Masterpieces of American Photography from 1940 until now

Participating artists:
Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Larry Clark, Bruce Davidson, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Peter Hujar, Helen Levitt, Ryan McGinley, Gordon Parks, Rosalind Solomon, Ed Templeton, Burk Uzzle.

Curator: Peter Weiermair

Americans, named after the legendary publication by Robert Frank, shows, in 13 series of photographic images, the crises and changes in US society since the 1940’s. The photographies have nothing familiar with the ideology of the "Family of Man", their diagnostic character far more lays open the wounds of this society and inscribes a history of mental revolution. At exactly the point in time when USA’s hegemonic endeavours are coming under critical cross-fire this exhibition is an important contribution to an anti-ideological discourse.

Helen Levitt’s street photography of New York begins the exhibition; 10 years later Bruce Davidson again picks up on the topic. Robert Frank’s "on the road" gave the Beat Generation of the 1960's their image. In the same decade Diane Arbus captures outsiders of the conformist, middle-class American society. In his early work Lee Friedlander thematises the experience of loneliness in the megacity New York.

The exhibition is not only concerned with urbanism, but also with aspects of American provinces: in the era of "Reaganomics" Richard Avedon portrays the people often ignored or dismissed, namely the working class, especially the blue-collar workers in Texas. Rosalind Solomon, a contemporary, deals with the New Orleans carnival in the 1990's. Gordon Parks, himself a black citizen, depicts the racial issues of segregation as well as the activities of the Mafia in the United States.

Photography also becomes a diary, documenting private lives, in the form of projected images by Larry Clark, who brings to awareness the sexuality of minors as well as the life of drug addicts. With the same, often brutal openness, Peter Hujar engages with the world of transvestites and transsexuals. Burk Uzzle documents in images events such as the Woodstock Festival and the utopia articulated there about living freely.
Strongly coloured by their autobiography, Ryan McGinley and Ed Templeton convey a distanced picture of today's hedonistic cult of youth that is influenced by erotic promiscuity and fun ideology.
These pictures do not judge but provoke viewers into making their own judgment. In contrast with the "concerned photography" of the 20th century in which pictures sought understanding but also demanded the acceptance of non- conformist behaviour, the most recent contributions are concerned with making statements without moral undertones.

Catalogue: America: The social landscape from 1940 until 2006. Masterpieces of American photography. Ed.: Kunsthalle Wien, Gerald Matt, Peter Weiermair.. With an introduction by Gerald Matt and texts by Peter Weiermair. Approx. 200 pages, 130 illustration pages. Verlag Damiani Editore, Bologna.
German/English: ISBN 88-89431-43-1 | € 24,

Image: Robert Frank, Parade - Hoboken, New Jersey, 1955

Press Conference: Thursday, November 2, 2006, 10 a.m.

Opening: Thursday, November 2, 2006, 7 p.m.

KUNSTHALLE Wien
Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Wien
Daily 10 a.m. - 7 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. - 10 p.m.

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