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Dating from roughly
1885 to 1915, the 364 paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs on
view demonstrate the pervasive and diverse role of photography in the work
and working processes of these significant artists. The works are organized
into fourteen monographic "chapters" on individual artists. Rodin's Eve,
Balzac and his Burghers of Calais are juxtaposed with photographs by Bulloz,
Haweis and Cole, Käsebier and Steichen; Degas' experimentation with
elaborate and by then old-fashioned photographic equipment demonstrates
his exploration in this medium and the motifs and aesthetic issues that
preoccupied him generally; and Alphonse Mucha is revealed not only as the
premiere graphic artist of Art Nouveau, but as an avid and exacting photographer. Other artists used photographs to spark their imagination or memory, as with Gauguin's collection of colonial photographs and treasured postcards of Borubodur, precious simulacra of an elusive exotic ideal. Bonnard's and Vuillard's innumerable Kodak snapshots form a body of images that capture the texture and nuance of their day-to-day environment. Khnopff and Moreau are among those artists who sometimes meticulously reworked the photographic print, transforming it thereby into another work of art. At the turn of the century, Picasso's interaction with photography ranged from the amateur's enthusiastic portraits of friends, to records of his painted works in progress, to the avid collector's assemblage of postcard images of works by Old Masters. |
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| Gustave Moreau Le Poéte Voyageur (The Wayfaring Poet) c. 1891 700 7/8 x 57 1/2 in. Musée Gustav Moreau, Paris |
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| The impact of photography on three-dimensional
arts and vice versa is examined through the work of Brancusi, Rosso and
Rodin. For Brancusi and Rosso their own photographs were the means of staging
and interpreting their sculpted oeuvre. Rosso altered the photographs of
his sculpture by blurring them through emulsion, vibrating the apparatus
during the exposure, abrading the print surface and cropping and annotating
what could be seen as independent artworks. Rodin was never himself the
photographer but commissioned work from an array of photographers, championing
in particular the work of Edward Steichen. While the role photography played in their creative processes varied greatly, many of these artists shared an aesthetic vision that marked a radical change in turn-of-the-century perceptions of reality. A common thread among those aligned with Symbolism emerged from the philosophies of Henri Bergson and Sigmund Freud, which toppled the notion of a perceivable, universal reality in favor of a subjective, spatially and temporally dependent view of the "real" world. Edvard Munch's Portrait of Nietzsche, 1907, The Crying Woman, 1906-07, and Bathing Men, 1904, are included with an array of highly sensitive self-portraits to reveal the breadth of Munch's exploration into the internal or unseen world. In addition, contemporary technological advancements such as x-ray, microscopic and time-sequenced photography revealed previously hidden details or levels beyond human perception. This view beneath the surface challenged the late-nineteenth-century notion that photography was predominantly a tool of Realism and Impressionism and paralleled the symbolist goal of expressing what is not immediately apparent: evoking ideas rather than representing reality, interpreting the world through a subjective lens. Degas to Picasso also examines the complex notion of photography as an art form in an era when it was frequently dismissed -- even by some of the artists who used it so extensively -- as no more than a mechanical tool. Pictorialism sought to heighten the awareness of photography as an art form, yet some artists among the turn-of-the-century avant-garde decried the infringement of the "reality-based" medium on their creative, handmade works. Though many of the artists in this exhibition publicly abjured photography, each engaged in a highly creative dialogue with the medium. For Stuck and Khnopff, carefully staged photographs were more than mere models or records, but rather elements of highly complex fictions. Photographic self-portraits by Munch, Bonnard and Picasso are riveting results of psychological exploration. By emphasizing the subjective use of the camera, the artists in the exhibition acted as catalysts for the reception of photography as fine art. This exhibition is organized by Dorothy Kosinski, the Dallas Museum of Art's Barbara Thomas Lemmon Curator of European Art. The San Francisco presentation is organized by Douglas R. Nickel, SFMOMA associate curator of photography. Complementing the exhibition, a series of public programs will be presented by the Education Department to enlighten visitors about the role of photography in turn-of-the-century art. Information on Public Programs is available at 415/357-4102. Scheduled docent-led tours will also be available by advance reservation, 415/357-4095. The exhibition is accompanied by a 344-page catalogue entitled Degas to Picasso: The Artist and the Camera, featuring over 500 illustrations and essays by the curators and leading scholars.The catalogue is available at the MuseumStore. To order please call 415/357-4035 or email museumstore@sfmoma.org. After its San Francisco premiere, the exhibition will travel during the year 2000 to the Dallas Museum of Art -- the organizing institution -- and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain. |
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This exhibition is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art. Bank of America is the National Sponsor. American Airlines is the official carrier of the exhibition. Special support for the SFMOMA presentation has been provided by Gretchen and Howard Leach and Mrs. Wellington Henderson. Media sponsors: KRON-TV4, BayTV, and SF Gate. Copyright © 1996-2008 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 
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