EUGÈNE ATGET. Paris,

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1 PRESS DOSSIER EUGÈNE ATGET Paris, The Cultural Institute of the FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE is delighted to invite you to the press conference on the exhibition, Paris, , to be held in the AUDITORIUM of the FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE (Paseo de Recoletos, 23) on 25 May 2011 at 12 NOON. Taking part in the press conference will be Alberto Manzano Martos, President of the FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE s Cultural Institute, its Director General, Pablo Jiménez Burillo, and the exhibition s curator, Carlos Gollonet. Inauguration: 26 May 2001 at 8pm Press conference: 25 May 2011 at 12 noon Dates: 27 May to 27 August 2011 Venue: FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE. Cultural Institute. Paseo de Recoletos, 23 Curators: Carlos Gollonet, independent curator and photography advisor to FUNDACION MAPFRE Frits Giertsberg, director of Exhibitions at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam Françoise Reynaud, curator at the Musée Carnavalet Production: FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Website: For additional information, please contact MAPFRE s Press and Communications Office (Alejandra Fernández. Tel: alejandra@mapfre.com )

2 The FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE is delighted to be presenting for the first time in Madrid the work of the French photographer (Libourne, 1857 Paris, 1927), a unique master whose work made a crucial contribution to the history of photography. Atget s enigmatic images inspired numerous artists over the course of the 20 th century and continue to do so today. The exhibition s curators looked at more than 4,000 photographs by Atget, from which they selected 228. All taken between 1898 and 1924, they offer a portrait of the city of Paris and its outskirts and clearly reveal the evolution of Atget s work. The prints in the exhibition have been loaned by the Musée Carnavalet in Paris, the George Eastmann House in Rochester and the collections of the FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE. Portrait d, 1927 Berenice Abbot Musée Carnavalet did not train as a photographer and only turned to it in order to try to earn a living, having been unsuccessful in other fields. He started out in the provinces but soon arrived in Paris where he lived for the rest of his life. Atget worked anonymously and was considered a commercial photographer who sold what he called documents for artists, i.e. photographs of landscapes, close-up shots, genre scenes and other details that painters could use as models. Nonetheless, as soon as Atget turned his attention to photographing the streets of Paris, his work attracted the attention of leading institutions such as the Musée Carnavalet and the Bibliothèque Nationale, which became his principal clients. It is in these photographs of Paris that we find Chanteuse de rue et joueur d'orgue de Barbarie, 1898 Musée Carnavalet

3 the best of Atget, the artist who shows us a city remote from the clichés of the Belle Époque. Atget s images of Old Paris depict areas that had not been touched by Haussmann s rebuilding and modernisation programme. We see empty streets and buildings, details that usually pass unnoticed, presented as rigorous, original compositions that offer a mysterious group portrait of the city. Rue Hautefeuille, 6 e arrondissement, 1898 Musée Carnavalet The exhibition is organised into 12 sections that correspond to the thematic groupings used by Atget himself. They are: small trades, Parisian types and shops, ; the streets of Paris, ; ornaments, ; interiors, ; cars, ; gardens, ; the Seine, ; the streets of Paris, ; outside the city centre, ; and the outskirts of Paris, Avenue l Observatoire, George Eastman House In addition, this section is accompanied by 43 photographs by Atget from an album that belonged to Man Ray. The photographs are of typical Parisian types and locations, taken between 1899 and They were selected by Man Ray, indicating the immediate interest that Atget s work aroused among the Surrealists. The first to appreciate his talents and importance were the photographer Berenice Abbot and Man Ray himself, both of whom lobbied to preserve Atget s photographs. The equipment and technique deployed by Atget links him to 19 th -century photography. He had a 18 x 24cm wooden, bellows camera, which was extremely heavy and had to be supported on a tripod. The use of glass plates allowed Atget to capture every tiny detail with great precision. Also traditional was his printing method, on albumen paper

4 made light-sensitive with silver nitrate, exposed under natural light and subsequently gold-tinted. Atget s vision of photography was, however, an astonishingly modern one. As a result, he inspired artists and photographers such as Brassaï, Cartier- Bresson and Roger Livet, the Surrealists, and Walker Evans, and he can also be considered the starting-point for 20 th -century documentary photography. In order to emphasise this theme, the FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE has organised a lecture series in which leading international experts will use Atget s images in order to demonstrate his influence on later photographers up to the present day. The series starts immediately after the opening of the exhibition. Châtaigniers, Collections FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE The exhibition will subsequently travel to Rotterdam (the Nederlands Fotomuseum, 24 September 2011 to 3 January 2012); Paris (the Musée Carnavalet, 17 April to 25 July 2012); and Sydney (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 21 August to 15 November 2012). THE CATALOGUE The catalogue is published in three languages (English, French and Spanish). It has been written by leading experts on the work of. Following a short text in which the curators set out the exhibition s aims, Guillaume Le Gall of the Sorbonne will analyse the way in which Atget s concern to photograph a Paris that was disappearing locates him in a context that first arose in the first half of the 19 th century. This desire on Atget s part led him to exclaim: I venture to say that I possess old Paris. It was, however, the avant-garde photographers who were best able to appreciate the artist s content of Atget s work beyond its documentary importance.

5 The article by Anne Cartier-Bresson and Marsha Sirven, heads of the Photography Restoration and Conservation Studio of the City of Paris, looks at the technical procedures used by Atget and at the criteria applied in the conservation and restoration of his work. The English writer Geoff Dyer offers a personal portrait of Atget and his work, while Michael Thomas Gunther investigates the relationship between Atget, Man Ray and Surrealist circles in 1920s Paris. The catalogue includes reproductions of all the works in the exhibition, organised into the 12 sections listed above. The use of 4-colour printing allows for an appreciation of the tonalities that Atget s images have acquired over time. Finally, the catalogue includes a highly complete and detailed biography of Atget, a select bibliography, an exhaustive list of exhibitions, and a list of public and private collections in which his work is to be found. All have been prepared by Françoise Reynaud, Chief Curator at the Musée Carnavalet, one of the leading experts on the work of Atget and co-curator of this exhibition. AUDIOGUIDES For the present exhibition, FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE is making the following services available: Audioguides in Spanish and English, as well as: Audioguides with audio-description. These are designed and have a script specifically intended for visually impaired users. They aim is to make the visitor as independent as possible within the exhibition space, using descriptive techniques that transform the images into sound-based explanations. Sign-guides. These are multi-media, portable devices equipped with a screen that plays a video in which the selected works are explained using sign language and with sub-titles.

6 WEB In order to expand the contents of the exhibition and to make it as accessible to the public as possible, FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE has created a corresponding monographic website. Located at the site offers users information on the key artistic concepts involved in the exhibition and on the most important works featured in it. The site includes a high-quality virtual tour through the galleries with explanations by experts. It also has an extract from the catalogue and information on workshops and guided tours, including ones for special needs visitors. The exhibition can also be found on the new educational portal, enredarte ( Families, teachers and children can learn more about the contents of the exhibition and interact with it in an enjoyable way.