Issue No. 28 – Control

What is the nature of control? The desire for it—and to be free of it—are essential parts of both life and art.

L'OEIL DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE: Curated by Patti Smith

L'OEIL DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE: Curated by Patti Smith

John Keats's bed, Fanny Brown House, London © Patti Smith

John Keats's bed, Fanny Brown House, London © Patti Smith

Article by and provided from: L'OEIL DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE

 

NOVEMBER 10, 2017

On the occasion of the Paris Photo fair, Gagosian gallery presents Curated by Patti Smith, an exhibition where the American musician, writer, and visual artist, has chosen a selection of her own photographs to be shown alongside works by other artists including Diane Arbus, Eugène Atget, Richard Avedon, Peter Lindbergh, Sally Mann, Taryn Simon, Deborah Turbeville, or Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol.

Smith began taking photographs in 1978, developing an ongoing, emotionally unfiltered archive of solitary moments. Modest in scale, the softly-lit black-and-white images are totemic mementos, serving as a diaristic undercurrent to her writing, music, and performance. Throughout her travels, Smith often made pilgrimages to significant sites, from the River Ouse where Virginia Woolf took her own life, to Frida Kahlo’s house, or Susan Sontag’s grave. These settings evoke the literary and artistic figures that Smith admires, and she affectionately photographs their homes, chairs, slippers, beds, and other personal effects. Made using a Land 250 Polaroid camera, Smith’s photographs are thus symbolic portraits, the inanimate objects embodying the deep resonance of each encounter.

The River Ouse, East Sussex, England © Patti Smith

The River Ouse, East Sussex, England © Patti Smith

Cy Twombly, Detail, Bilbao © Patti Smith

Cy Twombly, Detail, Bilbao © Patti Smith

 

Smith’s lifelong fascination with eulogy and remembrance is reflected in her selection of portraits by Richard Avedon, intimate photographs by Cy Twombly and Sally Mann, as well as the more objective gaze of Andy Warhol, in his photograph of the Empire State Building, and Taryn Simon, in her meticulous restaging of floral centerpieces from the signings of political accords and treaties. Curated by Patti Smith provides a glimpse of Smith and her fellow travelers, and is a coming-together of people, places, and relics.

 

Curated by Patti Smith
November 9-12 2017
Gagosian Gallery, Booth B16
Grand Palais
Avenue Winston Churchill
75008 Paris
France

http://www.parisphoto.com/

Virginia Woolf's Bed I, Monk's House © Patti Smith

Virginia Woolf's Bed I, Monk's House © Patti Smith

Paintbrushes, Duncan Grant's Studio © Patti Smith

Paintbrushes, Duncan Grant's Studio © Patti Smith

L'OEIL DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE: Karlheinz Weinberger, Getting dark

L'OEIL DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE: Karlheinz Weinberger, Getting dark

Art Out: Michel Delsol and Haruku Shinozaki - Edges of the Rainbow

Art Out: Michel Delsol and Haruku Shinozaki - Edges of the Rainbow