calendario eventi  :: 

X

5/7/2009

Two exhibitions

MNAC - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

This is War! Robert Capa at work

Robert Capa (1913-1954) was one of the most outstanding photographers of the 20th century. His pictures were published in the most important illustrated magazines, where he made his name, and in which he honed his technique as a master of modern photojournalism. This is war! Robert Capa at work is a pioneering exhibition that takes a fresh look at Capa’s contribution during the 1930s and 1940s. The title has been taken from the article published on December 3rd 1938 in the British magazine Picture Post, with Capa’s images of the Battle of the River Segre.

Through photographs, handwritten comments, books and magazines, the stories come to life an enable us to see how Capa worked. Death of a Republican Militiaman (1936), The Battle of the River Segre (1938) and Refugees in Barcelona (1939) illustrate his chronicle of the Spanish Civil War. China (1938) documents the Sino-Japanese War. D-Day (1944) and The Liberation of Leipzig (1945) feature among his photos of the Second World War.

Among these documents, we find a hitherto unpublished photographs and three contact sheets from one of his most dramatic series: the one taken at the Battle of the River Segre in November 1938, which is part of the material found in what is known as the “Mexican suitcase”, recovered in Mexico in 2007.

Sharing the room with this show, the MNAC is exhibiting Gerda Taro, the first major retrospective dedicated to this photojournalist, Capa’s collaborator and lover.

The MNAC is playing host to the two exhibitions precisely in 2009, the 70th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War

-----

Gerda Taro

Gerda Taro (1910-1937) was a photojournalist ahead of her time whose brief career produced almost exclusively the horrific photographs taken at the front in the Spanish Civil War. Her images, reproduced widely in the French left-wing press, incorporated elements typical of the “New Vision”, a movement appearing in Germany around 1920, along with a physical and emotional proximity to the subject. Taro worked closely with Robert Capa, her collaborator and lover. In July1937, while she was covering the decisive battle for Brunete, she was killed under the tracks of a tank. Her photographs are a splendid although little known testimony to that crucial moment in the history of war photography. The ICP conserves the largest collection of her work, made up of originals on paper and negatives. This exhibition, the first major retrospective ever dedicated to this photojournalist, and which can now be seen exceptionally in Spain, presents photographs, books and magazines in which Taro’s pictures were used.

Also in the exhibition are two unpublished photographs coming from what is known as the “Mexican suitcase”, recovered in Mexico in 2007. Study of them has shed light on photos of the Spanish Civil War taken by Capa, Taro and their fellow photojournalist David Seymour (Chim).

Sharing the room with this show, the MNAC is exhibiting This is war! Robert Capa at Work, dedicated to this pioneering war photojournalist.

The MNAC is playing host to the two exhibitions precisely in 2009, the 70th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War.

Image: Gerda Taro

Exhibitions organized by the International Center of Photography, New York (ICP) in co-production with the MNAC.

Press office
Tel. information service: (00 34) 93 6220360 Fax: (00 34) 93 6220374 premsa@mnac.cat

MNAC Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Palau Nacional. Parc de Montjuïc 08038 Barcelona
Opening times
Tuesday to Saturday: 10 am to 7 pm
Sunday and public holidays: 10 am to 2.30 pm
Monday: closed, except public holidays

stampa

permanent link