(New York, November 17, 2000)—One hundred fifteen portraits by Richard Avedon, the celebrated photographer, have been given by Mr. Avedon to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was announced today by Philippe de Montebello, the Museum's Director.
The donated works – which range from a 1949 study of architect Frank Lloyd Wright to a 1975 portrait of writer William Burroughs – constitute the artist's landmark exhibition, Richard Avedon, Photographer, held at Marlborough Gallery in New York from September 10 through October 4, 1975. In that presentation, Avedon surveyed the intellectual, artistic, and political landscape of a nation that had undergone a social and cultural revolution by photographing those individuals who cut clear figures on the new scene. The force of the spare undecorated portraits, the scope of the artist's endeavor, and the enormous size of the three central murals created a dramatic and indelible impression, forcing viewers to contend with the personalities who so vividly confronted them on the gallery walls. Clearly a map of a particular and historic cultural landscape, the carefully printed, variably scaled portraits formed one body of work, which the artist retained intact and in its entirety.
Said Mr. de Montebello: "Like the great 19th-century French master of photographic portraiture, Nadar, who made telling portraits of rare individuals and in so doing captured the creative genius of his generation, so Avedon, a century later, collected the key players and directed them in a brilliant portrait of an era that was questioning, unruly, and self-consciously alive, like all periods of radical growth."
The epoch in question was not just the second half of the 20th century, but especially the period from 1969 to 1975, which saw the reversals of American power and prestige in the Vietnam War and in Watergate.
In the pantheon of portraits donated to the Metropolitan by Mr. Avedon are painters, sculptors, writers, theatrical figures, criminals, political and spiritual leaders, psychiatrists, philosophers, and lawyers. The artist's father, a businessman, is also included as well as a group of earlier works, among them portraits of the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor (1957), Marilyn Monroe (1958), and the physicist Robert Oppenheimer (1958). Marcel Duchamp, Dorothy Parker, Henry Miller, Edward Albee, Willem de Kooning, Truman Capote, Igor Stravinsky, Jean Genet, Louise Nevelson, and Harold Brodkey are among the many figures from the worlds of arts and letters who appear. The three large murals, perhaps the grandest photographic portraits ever staged, range in size from 21 feet wide to 35 feet wide. They are group portraits of the Mission Council, political leaders who determined policy in regard to the Vietnam War; the Chicago Seven, leading anti-war activists of the Vietnam era; and Andy Warhol and members of The Factory, the coterie of artists, filmmakers, and performers who comprised the avant-garde bohemia of the day.
Although Avedon had first made his name as a fashion photographer primarily for Harper's Bazaar, the portraits in this collection did not issue from magazine or commercial assignments but from personal convictions and were solicited by the artist himself. In contrast with his fashion work, characteristically set in colorful and often surprising locales, beginning in 1969 Avedon portrayed each of his subjects against a stark, white, seamless background, with no extraneous details to conflict with or distract from his subject's graphic expression of his or her self. This challenging innovation, coupled with the artist's intense interest in his chosen subjects and passionate study of the means of portraiture, resulted in mesmerizing portrayals that rival the greatest in the tradition.
"These are pictures of famous people that are not at all about their celebrity," said Maria Morris Hambourg, Curator in Charge of the Metropolitan's Department of Photographs. "In their exchange with Avedon, each person yields up aspects of their interior self, some usually hidden but essential traits. Exactly how the photographer makes visible these fundamental conditions is the mystery of his genius. Collectively he is addressing our greatness and frailty, the glory and the guts of what he calls 'the human predicament.'"
In celebration of the artist's gift the Metropolitan plans a Fall 2002 exhibition, Avedon's Portraits, in which the Marlborough exhibition prints will be featured.
Richard Avedon was born in 1923 in New York City. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School, but never completed an academic education. In 1942 he joined the U.S. Merchant Marine Photographic Department, and, when he returned, attended The Design Laboratory taught by legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch. Since 1945, Mr. Avedon has been on the staff of and associated with leading publications including Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and The New Yorker. In addition to his innovative approach to the modern photographic portrait, Mr. Avedon is credited with reinventing fashion photography. His work is in the collections of and has been on view in many museums, including the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, The Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, The Smithsonian Institution and The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the National Portrait Gallery in London, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and the Palazzo Reale in Milan. Mr. Avedon's work will also be shown at the Deutsche Centrum für Photographie in Berlin, where he will be the first to receive the Berlin Photography Prize on November 17, 2000.
In 1978, a large retrospective of his fashion photography was mounted at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for which the artist, a native New Yorker, has always had a special affection. As a boy, Avedon often sought out the quiet of certain nooks in "the Met" to do his homework and he admits that his first kiss took place in the Egyptian Art Galleries. "The Metropolitan is proud to house Avedon's fond memories and best work," said Mr. de Montebello. "When love of art takes this sort of large and magnanimous turn, we are all most handsomely served."
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November 17, 2000
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