One hundred years of creative photography
An exhibition documents the technical and artistic possibilities of twentieth-century art to transform reality through 99 twentieth-century artists.
The exhibition Expanded Visions: Photography and Experimentation, curated by Julie Jones, is on show at CaixaForum Barcelona until 20 August. The exhibition offers a journey through photographic experimentation from the early 20th century to the present day, bringing together historical and contemporary works.
The exhibition is the result of a new collaboration with the Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou in Paris, which brings together 171 works by 99 photographers such as Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, Olafur Eliasson, Florence Henry, André Breton, Herbert Bayer, Roger Parry, Alejandro Rodchenko, William Klein, Paul Bury and Rudolf Steiner.
The authors come from a wide range of fields and disciplines, from art and science to graphic design, architecture, poetry, illustration, astronomy and writing. In a way, this is the case of the photographer Emili Godes (Barcelona, 1895-1970), known for his "large-format micro-photographs" of animals and plants. The exhibition includes an image by him from the MNAC. In the early decades of the 20th century, Dadaist, Surrealist, Futurist and Constructivist movements were exploring the limits of photographic language as a means of capturing the spirit of modern times. The result: abstract images, solarisations, collages, overprints, enlargements of microscopic images, X-rays, photomontages or photograms obtained without the intervention of the camera made it possible to express the formal, social and political concerns of the time.
In contrast to its mother -documentary photography, which is governed by the principle of fidelity- experimental photography allows its authors to express their creativity to the full thanks to the unrestrained use of technical advances and the combination with other forms of visual expression. Since its invention, photographic experimentation has continued to blur the boundaries between painting, sculpture, film and performance. After digital manipulation, it is now the turn of synthetic photography, thanks to Artificial Intelligence, which opens up new horizons. And great unknowns.
Tickets to see Expanded Visions: Photography and Experimentation cost 6 euros and can be purchased in advance by clicking here. The exhibition is complemented by guided tours, workshops, conferences and a visual arts cycle. Consult the programme at this link.