Mapfre Fundation presents the most completely exhibitions of the American photographer Paul Strand who makes a chronologic tour of all his career (1910-1960) with more than 200 prints which reflect his social and political commitment.

FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE is now presenting the work of another great master of photography. This exhibition also constitutes a focus on our own collections, given that since 2011 we are in possession of more than 100 photographs by Paul Strand, most of them vintage prints. As such, we are the European institution that houses the largest and most varied collection of works by this photographer. The exhibition spans the six decades of Strand’s artistic activities, analysing his most important works through some of the finest existing prints. This is the history of photography through a gaze.

1. From pictorialism to Modernity

The exhibition opens with Strand’s earliest works produced in the second decade of the century, which reveal his rapid mastery of the prevailing Pictorialist style. In 1915 he reassessed his experience to date, moving away from Pictorialist content and compositions in order to take photographs that capture the energy and movement of the city.

Fascinated by avant-garde art, during these years Strand focused on the representation of abstraction through everyday objects, most of them photographed in rural Connecticut. He set out to discover the effect of a distinguishable object represented solely through its lines and curves, which he treated as individual elements.

“In life it is evident that there are no such thing as ‘representation’ in itself and that ‘abstraction’ is merely quantitative extension or simplification, not necessarily more potent in the perception of objectivity. […] There is only the possibility of limitless individualized combinations related to experience.”

2. From Stieglitz's circle to portraits of the community

This section starts in the 1920s and is devoted to a period when Strand became fascinated by the potential of the large-format camera, its increase in clarity and greater detail allowing him to change his concept of how to capture images.

“(Cameras) seemed not only useful, but beautiful to me. I tried to photograph the power and fascinating precision of their own functionality as machines, their surfaces and lines”

3. Images of History and Modernity

The exhibition highlights mainly three of these projects through which we can better understand the artist's approach to these places and cultures: New England (1950), which draws on its cultural history to convey the idea of past and present that suggests an incessant struggle for democracy and individual freedom; Luzzara (1953), where he directs his attention to the daily realities of a northern town recovering from the miseries of war and fascism and Ghana (1963), until his later years where Strand draws attention to the countless discoveries in his garden.

Curator.-Peter Barberie, exhibition's curator of Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Dates.- 3 de junio-23 de agosto
Venue.- Showroom Bárbara de Braganza. Bárbara st de Braganza, 13, Madrid, 28004, Spain.

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Paul Strand nació en Nueva York el 16 de Octubre de 1890. En sus últimos años de la adolescencia fue pupilo del prestigioso fotógrafo documental Lewis Hine, en la Ethical Culture School Fieldston. Paul Strand comenzó a fotografiar en Nueva York en la década de 1910. Durante la década de 1920 recibió el reconocimiento, tanto por su pintura como su fotografía. Algunos de sus primeros trabajos, como el conocido "Wall Street", experimentó con abstracciones formales (influenciando, entre otros, a Edward Hopper y su visión urbana idiosincrásica). Otras obras suyas reflejan su interés en utilizar la cámara como una herramienta para la reforma social. Fue uno de los fundadores de la Photo League, una asociación de fotógrafos que defendían el uso de su arte para promover causas sociales y políticas. Visitó Nuevo México entre 1926 y 1930. Fue allí, en medio de una comunidad de artistas visuales y escritores, donde Strand comenzó a desarrollar su creencia en el valor humanista del retrato.

En junio de 1949, Strand salió de los Estados Unidos para presentar "Native Land" en el Karlovy Vary International Film Festival en la antigua Checoslovaquia. Los restantes 27 años de su vida los pasó en Orgeval, Francia, donde, a pesar de no aprender el idioma, mantuvo una vida creativa impresionante, con la asistencia de su tercera esposa, la fotógrafa Hazel Kingsbury Strand.

A pesar de que Strand es principalmente conocido por sus primeras abstracciones, su regreso a la fotografía en este período tardío produjo algunas de sus obras más significativas en forma de seis libros ‘portraits’ de lugar: Time in New England (1950), La France de Profil (1952), Un Paese (inclytendo fotografías de Luzzara y del Valle del río Po, en Italia, 1955), Tir a'Mhurain / Outer Hebrides (1962), Living Egypt (1969) and Ghana: an African portrait (1976).

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Published on: June 4, 2015
Cite: "Paul Strand: Master of Modern Photography" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/paul-strand-master-modern-photography> ISSN 1139-6415
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