Exhibition dates: 18th September 18 2012 – 20th January 2013
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This is the first posting on one of my favourite photographers of all time: Imogen Cunningham. The sensuality of this artist, from the early Pictorialist studies (including her ground breaking depiction of the male nude, her husband artist Roi Partridge) to the later Modernist nudes, portraits, industrial landscapes and botanical photographs is of the highest order. Cunningham reminds me of a photographic version of Georgia O’Keeffe without the undoubted darkness that inhabits some of O’Keeffe’s work.
The portrait of Frida Kahlo Rivera (1931, below) is a magnificent study of a proud woman with delicate use of natural light framing the face and gently clasped hands. Note the textures within the photograph – the dress, the shawl, the wicker chair and the wall – and also notice the reflective light falling behind the sitter upper left to balance the frontal light coming from bottom right. Masterful. Cunningham’s famous Two Callas (1929, below) is an glorious study of form, light and texture, a sensual symphony for the eyes, the background a kind of mutable black that allows the viewer’s gaze to be immersed in the subject. The viewer’s voyeuristic gaze is further engaged by the voluptuous suggestiveness of the copious hair and out of focus breast of Phoenix Recumbent (1968, below) where, “the object of the gaze is not aware of the current viewer (though they may originally have been aware of being filmed, photographed, painted etc. and may sometimes have been aware that strangers could subsequently gaze at their image).” “Notes on ‘The Gaze’” Daniel Chandler
Finally, the photograph of Imogen Cunningham and Twinka Thiebaud by Judy Dater (1974, below) seems to me to capture the spirit of the human being Imogen Cunningham with indelible grace. Youth, beauty, age, wisdom. A constantly inquisitive mind, wanting to know, wanting to see things more clearly, taking photographs right up until her final years. There she is with her twin-lens Rollei dressed as if from another century, the quizzical nature of her left hand and the look that passes between Imogen and Twinka, the space between them seeming to shimmer with possibility. That space seems to wash away the years of Imogen’s life to when she was young, lying naked near some trees (Self-Portrait (1906, below). It is a truly memorable image. In the sensitivity of this image, Dater embodies everything that I admire in Cunningham’s work: light, texture, sensitivity to subject, an understanding of beauty and an irrepressible, joyous sensuality. A fitting tribute to one of the world’s great photographers.
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Many thankx to the Fundación Mapfre, Madrid for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a a larger version of the image.
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Imogen Cunningham exhibition poster
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Imogen Cunningham
Self-Portrait
1906
Platinum print
©The Imogen Cunningham Trust, 2012
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Imogen Cunningham
Magnolia Blossom
1925
Gelatin silver print
©The Imogen Cunningham Trust, 2012
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Imogen Cunningham
Roi on the Dipsea trail 3
1918
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Imogen Cunningham
Unmade bed
1957
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Imogen Cunningham
Three Dancers, Mills College
1929
Gelatin silver print
©The Imogen Cunningham Trust, 2012
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Imogen Cunningham
Five Eggs
1951
Cibachrome
©The Imogen Cunningham Trust
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Imogen Cunningham
The Wood Beyond the World
c. 1912
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Imogen Cunningham
Agave Design 2
1920s
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Imogen Cunningham
The dream
1910
© The Imogen Cunningham Trust, 2011
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Imogen Cunningham
Frida Kahlo Rivera, Painter and Wife of Diego Rivera
1931
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Imogen Cunningham
Two Callas
1929
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Imogen Cunningham
Cary Grant, Actor
1932
Gelatin silver print
©The Imogen Cunningham Trust, 2012
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Imogen Cunningham
Aloe
1925
Gelatin silver print
©The Imogen Cunningham Trust, 2012
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Imogen Cunningham
Nude
1939
Gelatin silver print
©The Imogen Cunningham Trust, 2012
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Imogen Cunningham
Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather, Photographers I-II
1922
© The Imogen Cunningham Trust, 2011
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Imogen Cunningham
Hen and Chickens
1929
© The Imogen Cunningham Trust, 2011
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Imogen Cunningham
Phoenix Recumbent
1968
Gelatin silver print
Private Collection
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Judy Dater
Imogen Cunningham and Twinka Thiebaud
1974
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FUNDACIÓN MAPFRE - Instituto de Cultura
Paseo de Recoletos, 23
28004 Madrid, Spain
T: +34 915 81 61 00
Opening hours:
Sunday 11.00 am – 7.00 pm
Monday 2.00 – 8.00 pm
Tuesday 10.00 am – 8.00 pm
Wednesday 10.00 am – 8.00 pm
Thursday 10.00 am – 8.00 pm
Friday 10.00 am – 8.00 pm
Saturday 10.00 am – 8.00 pm
Filed under: American, american photographers, beauty, black and white photography, colour photography, documentary photography, exhibition, gallery website, intimacy, landscape, light, memory, photographic series, photography, portrait, psychological, reality, space, time Tagged: Agave Design 2, Cary Grant, edward weston, Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather, Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather Photographers I-II, Frida Kahlo, Frida Kahlo Rivera, Frida Kahlo Rivera Painter and Wife of Diego Rivera, Fundacion MAPFRE, Hen and Chickens, Imogen Cunningham, Imogen Cunningham Agave Design 2, Imogen Cunningham Aloe 1925, Imogen Cunningham and Twinka Thiebaud, Imogen Cunningham at Fundación Mapfre, Imogen Cunningham Cary Grant, Imogen Cunningham Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather, Imogen Cunningham Five Eggs, Imogen Cunningham Frida Kahlo Rivera, Imogen Cunningham Hen and Chickens, Imogen Cunningham Magnolia Blossom, Imogen Cunningham Nude 1939, Imogen Cunningham Phoenix Recumbent, Imogen Cunningham Roi on the Dipsea trail 3, Imogen Cunningham Self-Portrait 1906, Imogen Cunningham The dream, Imogen Cunningham The Wood Beyond the World, Imogen Cunningham Three Dancers Mills College, Imogen Cunningham Two Callas, Imogen Cunningham Unmade bed, Judy Dater, Judy Dater Imogen Cunningham, Judy Dater Imogen Cunningham and Twinka Thiebaud, Judy Dater Twinka Thiebaud, madrid, Margrethe Mather, nude, nude female body, Phoenix Recumbent, Roi on the Dipsea trail 3, the female nude, the male body, the nude, the nude male body, The Wood Beyond the World, Three Dancers Mills College, Twinka Thiebaud
