Palazzo Reale in Milan celebrates Richard Avedon (1923-2004), one of the masters of twentieth-century photography, with an exhibition entitled “RICHARD AVEDON. Relationships” that traces a career spanning more than sixty years, through 106 images from the collection of the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) in Tucson (USA) and the Richard Avedon Foundation (USA).
Sponsored by Comune di Milano – Cultura, and produced and organized by Palazzo Reale and Skira Editore, in collaboration with the Center for Creative Photography and the Richard Avedon Foundation, the exhibition is curated by Rebecca Senf, Chief Curator of the Center for Creative Photography collection, with Versace as main partner and Vogue Italia as media partner.
The show will provide an in-depth look at the innovative features of Avedon’s art, which made him one of the most influential artists of the 20th century; on the one hand, he revolutionized the way models are photographed, transforming them from static subjects to actresses who are protagonists of the set also showing their human side; on the other hand, his striking celebrity portraits, in black and white and often large format, are capable of revealing the innermost psychological side of the person portrayed.
The exhibition itinerary, divided into ten sections is built around the two most characteristic figures of his research: fashion photographs and portraits.
The fashion ones can be grouped into two main periods. The early images, made before 1960, are taken “on location” and feature models impersonating a role to evoke a narrative.
Later works, on the other hand, focus exclusively on the model and the garments she wears. In these later photographs, Avedon often uses a minimalist, uniform background, and most often portrays the subject in dynamic poses, using the fluid forms of the body to reveal the construction, fabric, and movement of the garment.
The exhibition also features a large selection of portraits of celebrities from the world of entertainment, actors, dancers, musicians but also civil rights activists, politicians and writers, including those of the Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr), as well as Bob Dylan by Michelangelo Antonioni, Allen Ginsberg, Sofia Loren, Marylin Monroe, the Dalai Lama, and two by Andy Wahrol, where the father of American Pop art decides to show his intimacy to Richard Avedon by exhibiting his gunshot scars after surviving an assassination attempt.
A whole is dedicated to the collaboration between Richard Avedon and Gianni Versace: it begins with the campaign for the spring/summer 1980 collection, which decreed the designer’s debut, up to the campaign for the spring/summer 1998 collection, the first signed by Donatella Versace.
Avedon’s work for Versace is a depiction of how that unique relationship that is sometimes created between designer and photographer can produce images destined for an out-of-time zone, definitively beyond the circumscribed narrative they were originally intended for, linked to the seasonality of fashion, to revolutionize instead its global narrative.
Another section is devoted to portraits of American civil rights movement figures and members of the U.S. Congress, the latter of whom were included in the portfolio The Family, made in 1976 for Rolling Stone magazine, which documented the U.S. political power elite.
A catalog (published by Skira) accompanies the exhibition, with texts by James Martin, Donatella Versace, Rebecca Senf, and Maria Luisa Frisa.
RICHARD AVEDON. Relationships
Curated by Rebecca Senf
Promoted by the Municipality of Milan
Organized by Palazzo Reale and Skira Editore in collaboration with Center for Creative Photography and la Richard Avedon Foundation
Main Partner: Versace
Media Partner: Vogue Italia
September 22, 2022 – January 29, 2023
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday | h 1.00 - 19.30
Thursday | h 10.00 - 22.30
Palazzo Reale
P.za del Duomo, 12
20122, Milano
