Richard Avedon - Potographs 1946 - 2004

From 13 February to 13 May 2009

by Francesca Lombardo

Foam_Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, presents the first retrospective of work by Richard Avedon since his death in 2004. Avedon was a legend in his own lifetime, and remains one of the leading photographers of the latter half of the twentieth century. He enjoyed a star status that never left him. It was as a revolutionary fashion photographer that Avedon made his name in the 1950s. He was also a major innovator in modern portrait photography. Rather than portray famous figures in stiff, conventional poses, Avedon’s powerful, subjective manner penetrated the personality of his subject. The exhibition features over 200 works and demonstrates the range of Avedon’s unique vision: from the glamour of the Parisian fashion world of the early 1950s, the many portraits of public figures, his ten-metre-long work The Factory, a selection from his famous In the American West series, to photos taken shortly before his death in 2004.

Final European location: Amsterdam
This first Richard Avedon retrospective is unique in several ways. The exhibition appears in six locations around the world. After Copenhagen, Milan, Paris and Berlin, Amsterdam is the show’s final European venue. This Foam presentation is therefore the final opportunity to see such a large selection of works by one of the leading, most influential photographers of the twentieth century.
Moreover, Avedon stipulated before his death that no posthumous prints were to be made from his negatives, or from files based on his negatives. This means that the number of prints of his work is limited to those which were made during his own lifetime or were personally approved by him. Working jointly with the Richard Avedon Foundation, the organisation that supervises Avedon’s entire estate, it has been possible to include various unique and rarely exhibited works in the current retrospective.

The exhibition is arranged more or less in chronological order, with major works selected from successive periods, from large projects or from groups of photos in which Avedon focused on a specific subject or event. The earliest works in the show date from shortly after the Second World War, when Avedon visited Rome and Sicily. This work has rarely been exhibited before. After his celebrated fashion photos from Paris in the 1950s, the emphasis shifts to Avedon’s fascination with human physiognomy. His portraits of famous artists such as Charlie Chaplin, Louis Armstrong, Marilyn Monroe, Alberto Giacometti and Marcel Duchamp are invariably at odds with the conventional image of stars of the time. Set against a white background, isolated from their surroundings, they reveal Avedon’s subjective and often ruthless vision of his subject. In the 1960s, Avedon’s work focused increasingly on social issues, with numerous portraits of activists and student leaders. In his monumental work, The Factory, Avedon portrayed the artist Andy Warhol and his entourage. No less than 56 photos from The Family are featured, taken in 1976 for Rolling Stone magazine, in which he published portraits of some of the most powerful figures in the United States at that time. Avedon’s well-known portraits of Samuel Beckett, Francis Bacon, William Burroughs, John Ford and Jean Renoir are also shown in the exhibition. Following a selection of highlights from his In the American West project, the show ends with works made in Avedon’s final years, before his death in 2004.

Richard Avedon - Potographs 1946 - 2004

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