VERONA, ROBERT DOISNEAU'S PHOTOGRAPHY ON EXHIBITION.
“What I was trying to show was a world where I would feel
well, where people would be kind, where I would find the
tenderness that I hoped to receive."
This is how Robert Doisneau loved to describe his work, a life dedicated to photography, to transform every shot into a sort of "trial
that this world existed", as he said.
His art has thus become a vehicle for representations of tenderness. In the images of him, which have entered history today, all the emotion of the reassuring daily gestures and life situations that his gaze managed to capture.
The opportunity to admire and discover them It's in Verona, thanks to the major retrospective dedicated to Doisneau organized by November 15, 2023 at 14 February 2024 in the splendid spaces of the Palazzo della Gran Guardia.
A visual journey to discover one of the founding fathers of French humanistic photography and street photojournalism, composed of 135 black and white images, all from the collection of the Atelier Robert Doisneau in Montrouge, in the immediate southern suburbs of Paris.
“An exhibition project welcomed in one of the most evocative spaces and details of our city, with a unique view of Piazza Bra e the Arena of Verona – underlines the Councilor for Culture Marta Ugolini
–. A place that becomes an amplifier of the beauty of the extraordinary work by one of the greatest photographers of the 900th century, one of which is on display a very small part, 135 shots, of his immense artistic creation to which he dedicated his entire existence. A well represented research in the chosen exhibition path, which shows the observer the whole the freshness and simplicity of that daily life sought after by Doisneau. A return of the photography to which we are linked and for the
which we are working to give back to the city the excavation space Scaligeri and to reconstruct a presence of this important form expressive".
The exhibition, curated by Gabriel Bauret, created in collaboration and with the patronage of the Municipality of Verona, promoted by the Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo Foundation and produced by Silvana Editoriale, it retraces the creative story of the great French artist.
The exhibition was presented this morning in Gran Guardia by the Councilor for Culture Marta Ugolini together with the curator Gabriel Bauret and the Editorial Director of Silvana Editore Sergio Di Stefano.
“It is the sixth stage of the journey made in Northern Italy with this retrospective dedicated to Doisneau – explains the curator Gabriel Bauret – and every time there was a huge success in terms of public participation and appreciation. We are very happy with continue this adventure made possible primarily by the important availability, openness and liveliness of the artist's daughters, who have made the suggestive shots available to the project make up the exhibition."
In Montrouge, Doisneau developed and archived his images for over fifty years, and that is where he passed away in 1994, leaving a legacy of nearly 450.000 negatives. From the same atelier, today his two daughters contribute to the diffusion and dissemination of his work, welcoming continuous requests from museums, festivals and publishing houses.
The exhibition itinerary is enriched by the screening of excerpts from Clémentine Deroudille's film “Robert Doisneau. Le Révolté du merveilleux” and an interview with the curator Gabriel Bauret.
The exhibition is accompanied by the “Robert Doisneau” catalogue, published by Silvana Editoriale.
“This exhibition represents a flagship of our productions – declares director Sergio Di Stefano –, first of all for the high quality of the works of this great master of photography who was able to portray everyday subjects and moments in a never banal way with a free, lucid, playful but also committed gaze. The images are not linked by a chronological order of theme but by chosen contexts, this allows a dialogue that generates a timeless story that makes us feel good, as Doisneau himself loved to highlight".
Born in 1912 in Gentilly, a city in the southern suburbs of Paris, Robert Doisneau moves the first steps in the field of lithography, activity that he will quickly abandon in favor of an apprenticeship at André Vigneau's studio, which introduced him to the world of photography. An intense collaboration with Renault's advertising department would follow for four years.
Once this commitment was completed, Robert Doisneau achieved the much coveted status of independent photographer, but his momentum is broken from the war, which however did not stop him from continuing to photograph. Immediately after the Liberation of the capital, which he witnessed, a very intense period of commissions began for advertising (and in particular for the automotive industry), the press (including the magazines "Le Point" and later "Vogue" ) and publishing.
In parallel, he carries out his personal projects, which will be the subject of numerous publications, to begin with from the book created in 1949 in collaboration with his companion, the famous writer Blaise Cendrars, La Banlieue de Paris, the first synthesis of the many stories in images that he will dedicate to this world.
His trajectory also intersects with those of Jacques Prévert and Robert Giraud, whose experience and friendship nourish his photography, as well as with that of the actor and cellist Maurice Baquet, protagonist of numerous shots by the photographer. Since 1946 his photographs are distributed by the Rapho agency. Here he met Sabine Weiss, Willy Ronis and, subsequently, Édouard Boubat, who together with him would form an aesthetic current often defined as "humanist".
In 1983 he was awarded the “Grand Prix national de la photography”, the consecration of an extremely rich and dense work.
This consecration passes through the numerous exhibitions, in France and abroad, the incalculable works that revisit his photography from the most varied perspectives and the documentaries dedicated to him.
And in Verona the public will have the pleasure of getting close to the great photographer through 135 of his most beautiful images.
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