The Podbielski Contemporary gallery presents Pleasure Garden, a project led by Pierre André Podbielski through research carried out during the 1970s in Paris, offers a new photographic approach to the artistic nude.
Pleasure Garden is a Jardin du Plaisir, a magical refuge where the seed of love penetrates the earth, transforming into a fleeting and fleeting lover. The universe of images collected in the exhibition becomes a place of seduction and tactile perception, of whispered and at the same time hidden stories.
The common thread of the exhibition project is the Latin word Voluptas: Divinity born of the union of Love and the Psyche, whose story is told in the Metamorphoses of the Apuleius, Volupté indicates this enjoyment of the senses inextricably joined to the satisfaction of the soul, a sweet emotion of the body which is at the same time spiritual joy.
As early as 1839, with the advent of photography, the nude became an essential subject: nudity inspired some of the greatest masters. Tel Brassai, Erwin Blumenfeld, Bill Brandt, Lucien Clergue, Horst P. Horst, André Kertesz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Carlo Mollino, Nadar, Helmut Newton, Man Ray, Jean Louis Sieff, Edward Weston and, only recently, the wonderful unpublished Saul Leiter, they have all been my traveling companions and a source of inspiration in the treatment of this exhibition.
The route of the exhibition will be opened by three important protagonists of the photography of the century: René Groebli (Zurich, 1927), with a series of sensual and at the same time melancholy shots which constitute the famous series Das Auge der Liebe (L eye of love), a tribute to his wife. Ferdiando Scianna (1943, Bagheria), famous Magnum photographer, deeply rooted in the atmospheres of his Sicilian land. Portrayed for Dolce Gabbana the iconic model Marpessa Hennink, a dark-skinned woman, mixed race, the epitome of refined, sensual and timeless beauty.
Artists featured
René Groebli,
Francesco Zizola,
Ferdinand Scianna,
Debora Barnaba,
Carlota Lady,
Erica Campanella,
Bruno Catanni,
Bo-Ljungblom,
Benyamin-Reich.
Philippe Blache
Pleasure Garden
Curated by Pierre André Podbielski
September 2 – September 30, 2020
Podbielski Contemporary
Via Vincenzo Monti, 12
20123 Milan
