An exhibition in Paris is offering a view on the second half of the 20th century as seen by American Milton Gendel, great traveler and observer of his time.
Relatively little known, Milton Gendel was an important participant in the culture of Europe and the United States, a friend of artists and celebrities in the art world and close to the great and the good, particularly the royal family of England. Born in New York in 1918, Milton Gendel was first an art historian and Meyer Schapiro’s assistant at Columbia University in New York in 1939 and 1940. From 1941, Milton Gendel frequented André Breton and the Surrealists who left war-torn Europe. After having worked at the Camouflage Engineering Company, in 1942, Milton Gendel joined the American army. He studied Chinese at Yale; in 1945, he was serving in Kunming and, next, assigned to the “historical section” in Shanghai. At Formosa, Taiwan, he was part of the capture of the Japanese governor, General Ando.
Milton Gendel moved to Europe at the end of 1949.
Among others, he was the correspondent for the New York journal ARTnews, the co-curator at the Venice Biennale for the United States’ pavilion (1977), and the editor of An Illustrated History of Italy (published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Rizzoli) and of one series of the twenty-five volumes on the great monuments of the world (published by Newsweek and Mondadori).
His collaboration as a cultural and public relations consultant for Adriano Olivetti, dedicated boss of post-war Italy, started in 1951. Milton Gendel was also the editorial consultant for Alitalia. Honorary member of the American Academy in Rome, Milton Gendel frequented this institution beginning in the 1950s under the direction of art historian Laurance P. Roberts; he was a friend of photographer Ernest Nash, in charge of the photography collection at the Academy, which inspired him for his series of Roman and Italian scenes.
This exhibition at the AROA gallery (as part of the Mois de la Photo du Grand Paris) is comprised of seventy of Milton Gendel’s black and white prints, landscapes, life scenes, photo-reportages, portraits of famous figures, so many accounts of a recent era in which all visitors can see themselves. With seventy-two thousand negatives and sixty albums, the Milton Gendel collection covers more than seventy years of his life in Europe, Asia, and America. With his work, Milton Gendel traveled though much of Europe, always paying attention to design and the art world. In the army and then during his career as an international reporter, he covered historical and societal subjects.
This includes monuments and views present in iconography as well as a social history of Italy, from the post-war poverty to the economical miracle, from Rome and the dolce vita, also called “Hollywood on the Tibre”, from the 50s and 60s up to the current generation.
Milton Gendel’s Sicilian photos (1950) were followed, among others, by a 1954 reportage in Puglia, views of Rome, interiors of historic palaces and villas in Italy, as well as Venice Biennale covers and a complete chronicle of Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden in Garavicchio, Tuscany. This exhibition highlights the work of Milton Gendel, which, without a doubt, offers a better understanding of the artistic world and of 20th century European and American society.
Milton Gendel, 50 ans du regard d’un photographe-reporter
From March 30 through April 30, 2017
As part of the Mois de la Photo du Grand Paris
Galerie en atelier AROA
38 bd d’Inkermann
92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine
France
