On the occasion of the 20th edition of Paris Photo, the Centre Pompidou presents the exhibition The Pencil of Culture: a selection of about one hundred works handpicked to highlight pivotal moments in a decade of photography acquisitions.
Since 2007, 11,841 photographic works have been entered into the museum’s inventory. In addition to the extraordinary Christian Bouqueret collection acquired in 2011 (comprising 7,055 vintage prints from the 1930s and 1940s), the Centre Pompidou holdings feature nearly 5,000 works covering the whole spectrum of the history of photography, from vintage to contemporary prints, including images by artists and professional photographers representing all styles and nationalities.
The exhibition, presented at the Salon d’Honneur of the Grand Palais, takes its title from the first book devoted to the history of photography, The Pencil of Nature. Published in 1844 by William Henry Fox Talbot, it views photography as a direct imprint of nature. Nearly two centuries later, photography ceased to be a faithful follower of reality.
Featuring over forty artists, the exhibition reaffirms photography’s role as a cultural marker. Every photograph which has enriched the Centre Pompidou collection over the past years bears the trace of a cultural moment. These images are witnesses to diverse ways of thinking, acting, and creating. They reveal the social, political, intellectual, spiritual, and sensory configurations that form the fabric of our community.
Housing 40,000 prints, the Centre Pompidou photography collection is among the most extensive in Europe. It constitutes one of the rare holdings in the world capable of retracing the complete history of modern and contemporary photography, with a particular emphasis on the 1920s and 1930s.
The Pencil of Culture: 10 Years of Acquisitions at the Centre Pompidou
From November 10 to 13, 2016
Paris Photo
Salon d’Honneur at the Grand Palais
Paris, France
