Richard Avedon @ Louisiana

Richard Avedon, Photographs 1946-2004

24. august 2007 to 13. january 2008

Richard Avedon

For more than fifty years Richard Avedon was one of the biggest names in the fashion industry with a star status that he maintained throughout all those years, and he was the first to break down the barrier between so-called serious and non-serious photography. He emerged as early as the 1950s as the world’s leading fashion photographer, and was on the staff of the American magazine Harper’s Bazaar, later on Vogue, ending in 1992 as the weekly The New Yorker’s first permanent staff photographer.

Richard Avedon was awarded the Swedish Hasselblad Prize for photography in 1991.

THE EXHIBITION

Anyone who was anyone over the last fifty years has been modelling for Avedon. The exhibition shows portraits of Truman Capote, Charles Chaplin, Henry Kissinger, Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen, The Beatles, Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Samuel Beckett and many more. Not only the glamour aesthetics of fashion but the fascination of the expressive human face and the intencity of the look inspires Avedon.

The exhibition features more than 200 photographs, demonstrating the scope of Avedon's production, from the glamorous world of fashion through the more psychologial portraits to reportage-oriented shots. It draws selectively on picture series where Avedon concentrated on a particular range of themes, subjects or events – from travel pictures to almost registrative pictures of his dying father. Photographs from the New York Life reportage series from 1949 – a work commissioned by Life magazine, which Avedon at the time ended up not submitting to the magazine, and from which he first showed selections forty years later in his own book “An Autobiography“ - can be seen in the exhibition.

Innovator of modern portrait photography

Along with Irving Penn, Avedon transformed portrait photography in the twentieth century. Where one usually has a fixed image of a well known person, Avelon shatters the scrapbook icon with his photographs and shows a portrait that leaves you with food for thought. Placing the model in front of a simple white background, face directly towards he camera, Avedon strips the model from his natural invironment. All there is left is a human being staring back at the beholder.

Retrospective

The exhibition is retrospective and shows Avedons work chronological from pictures taken in 1946, when Avedon went to Sicilly and Rome after World War II, and the last photograph in the exhibition is of the singer Björk, taken in 2004 less than four months before Avedon's sudden death.

The exhibition at Louisiana is the first presentation of Avedon’s pictures in Denmark. This can be done because Louisiana contacted Richard Avedon and The Avedon Foundation as early as 2003 about a future exhibition. In 2004 Richard Avedon died, and now The Avedon Foundation is honouring the agreement with Louisiana on an exhibition which Avedon himself verbally approved. This makes Louisiana the first museum to realize a retrospective exhibition of the photographer’s work since his death, providing a unique opportunity to make the acquaintance of an intense life’s work.

Curator

The exhibition has been concieved and organized by curator Helle Crenzien, Louisiana, in collaboration with The Avedon Foundation.

The exhibition on world tour

After being shown at Louisiana the exhibition will be sent on a world tour to FORMA in Milan, Jeu de paume in Paris, Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, Foam Photographiemuseum in Amsterdam and finally to SFMOMA in San Francisco.

Special Catalogue

For the exhibition Louisiana is publishing a large special catalogue with contributions by among others Judith Thurman, the English writer Geoff Dyer, Avedon's gallerist Jeffrey Fraenkel and the critics Christoph Ribbat (Germany) and Rune Gade (Denmark).

The catalogue features about 130 of the photos in the exhibition reproduced in tritone with lacquer. All repro work has been done by the world-famous lithographer Robert Hennessey, and the book has been designed by Michael Jensen.

The book will be published in English, French, German and Italian. The upcoming issue of Louisiana Magasin (no. 26) further features an article (in Danish) by curator Helle Crenzien.

Sponsors

OAK FOUNDATION Denmark supports the exhibition.
DONG Energy is the main sponsor of Louisiana’s exhibitions.
Realdania is the sponsor of Louisiana’s architecture exhibitions.
Nykredit is the sponsor of LOUISIANA CONTEMPORARY.

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Black Horses in a Green Park

4-5 August 2007 Copenhagen hosts the sevenths Grand Prix for historic racing cars. The track - prolonged by one kilometre - is located in one of the city’s largest and most popular parks. Here the 60 years’ anniversary of Maranello’s prancing horses are celebrated to the full

- The City of Copenhagen not only has approved the prolongation of the circuit with a kilometre but we have also arranged with Ferrari Import Denmark A/S and Ferrari Owners Clubs in Northern Europe that we will celebrate Ferrari’s passionate history and 60 years’ birthday with a dynamic display of potent Ferraris through six decades.

CEO Johnny Laursen of Ferrari Denmark:

- A special parking lot for Ferrari owners bringing their own Ferraris to the race will be set up next to Ferrari Denmark’s historic display and the Ferrari motorhomes where we will also feature Ferrari’s latest road-going super cars and the Ferrari Scandinavia Challenge stables.

Mayor Klaus Bondam greets the new ambitions welcome:

- The Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix has become a recurring event which high lights the entrepreneurial and trendsetting spirit of the city and which falls in line with the other international initiatives Copenhagen is becoming world famous for.

- Motor sport is one of the sports where some great Danes are setting the pace internationally, says Claus Frausing of the Historic Automobile Sports Association, Tom Kristensen and Jan Magnussen being two of them. Therefore it is also extremely important for us that we can muster one the most iconic motor sports marques ever to participate with such vigourness in a show which truly also appeals to an international audience.

The organizers expect more than 200 participants with at least as many cars to the 2007 Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix. For spectators arriving to the track in a classic car (up to 1970) a special Classic Car Parking will be set up adjacent to one of the entrances.

The Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix is a non profit event. Profits will be used for talent development in Danish motor sport.

Approximately 250 volunteers work enthusiastically without pay to make the race come through. In the last week before the race many of them work 24 hours schedules to build the track and facilities.

The track is situated in the middle of Copenhagen in one of the city’s largest parks only 1.5 kilometres from the medieval city centre with abundance of hotels, restaurants and shopping.
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