Master Works. The art of portraiture. In the exhibition of around 30 photographs, the Gallery presents portraits of famous artists and other celebrities - for example Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Roy Lichtenstein, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso - by the american photographer.
In the exhibition of around 30 photographs, ArteF Fine Art
Photography Gallery present portraits of famous artists and other
celebrities, for example Jean Arp,
Max Ernst, Roy Lichtenstein, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Ed Ruscha,
Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred
Stieglitz as well as I.M.
Pei and Bill Clinton. For
example, we see Igor
Stravinsky sitting at his monumental grand piano, his head resting
pensively on his hand. It is not the well-known composer occupying the
centre of the picture, rather the open instrument, which dominates the
space as an abstract form.
«Originally
I wanted to be a painter. It was my dream to express everything I had to
say in a single image – my thoughts and feelings, my opinions about
people, my interest in nature». Arnold
Newman is unrivalled in achieving exactly this. Our memories of
celebrities of the last century have been decisively shaped by his
images.
Arnold
Newman
was born in 1918 in New York
City, the second of three sons to Isidor and Freda
Newman. He grew up in Atlantic
City, New Jersey.
Due to his parents’ financial difficulties, he was forced to break off his
art studies at the University of
Miami and take a job in a
portrait studio in Philadelphia. It was here that he began
to take photographs in his spare time. In 1939 Newman mad e the
acquaintance of Alfred Stieglitz and in 1941 he exhibited his photographs
for the first time at the A.D. Gallery in New York. The Museum of
Modern Art acquired
several copies from this exhibition. A solo exhibition followed in 1945 at
the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the museum bought up all the exhibits
for its collection. In the following decades Arnold Newman regularly took
photographs for well-known newspapers and magazines such as Harpers
Bazaar, Fortune, LIFE and The New York Times. In 1954 he took his first
trip to Europe, where he was introduced
to the Parisian art world and made portraits of many artist
celebrities. Numerous
exhibitions in galleries and museums around the world confirmed his
successful career.
In 2004 Newman received the highest commendation of the
English Royal Photography Society and in 2006 he was awarded the Gold
Medal for Portraiture from the National Art Club of America.
Arnold Newman died on June 6, 2006, in New York.
Image: Alberto
Giacometti
in his Parisian studio in 1954. In the background, the wooden carcass of a
piece of furniture filled with work materials. The sculptor is placed
right in the foreground, looking sceptically towards the photographer.
Arnold Newman (1918 – 2006), who made
this masterwork, is one of the most influential portrait photographers of
the 20th century. Quite early on he developed his style, which
became known as «environmental portraiture». The environment, the
architecture and the atmosphere in which he photographed his models are
not just decoration, instead they emphasise the character and personality
of the subject.
Opening Thursday, March 27, 18-20
ArteF Galerie
Splugenstrasse 11 - Zurich
Tuesday - Friday 13-18 and Saturday 11-16