The focal point of this exhibition at MAPFRE Foundation is the portrait of the 20th century, in which different artists from all around the world and at different times faced the human figure in a variety of ways. Included are photographers such as Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, Harry Callahan, Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, Alberto García-Alix, Emmet Gowin or Graciela Iturbide.
The exhibition is arranged in three major parts: “Cities”, “Communities” and “Artists and models”. Through them, it proposes to travel in time and to the place, to recognize influences and to indicate significant parallelisms between artists from 1916 to 2013. It let us find authors who are a benchmark in the history of photography, and also those less familiar, but all sharing a particular view on the central theme of the exhibition.
The selection presented contemplates a wider view of the portrait. There are examples of the formal, prearranged studio portrait, which is the most widely recognized, such as portraits by Jitka Hanzlová. but other different modalities are also included: Fleeting street portraits, in which the characters portrayed are unaware of the camera (Helen Levitt, Harry Callahan); the urban portrait by Diane Arbus; portraits that give visibility to an entire community, like those by Paul Strand; committed portraits with a heavy social burden, such as those by Fazal Sheik, intimate and family portraits by Emmet Gowin; ironic self-portraits by Friedlander or Graciela Iturbide, which reflect their obsessions.
Portraits
June 22 to September 3, 2017
MAPFRE Foundation
Paseo de Recoletos 23
28004 Madrid
Spain
