Faces in the Crowd

Taking Edouard Manet and key post-Impressionist masters as its starting point, Faces in the Crowd traces the story of modern art through representations of the individual and society.

The exhibition’s title is taken from a one-image poem by Ezra Pound: ‘The apparition of these faces in the crowd; petals on a wet, black bough’, inspired by a journey on the Paris Metro in 1913. It gives a powerful evocation of the individual immersed within the modern metropolis. Moving through modern masters such as Max Beckmann, Francis Bacon and Jeff Wall, Faces in the Crowd maps social and individual relationships through a history of avant garde figuration.

Transformations of the city through architecture and technology created public spaces of leisure and spectacle, which are explored in the works of Eugene Atget, Walter Sickert and Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec. The reduction of private identities to social type became the defining work of August Sander, while in more recent years Cindy Sherman has used different guises and identities to reinvent a sense of self.

Artists such as Umberto Boccioni, Edvard Munch and Andy Warhol have used the figure to express sensations of speed, alienation or celebrity in modern life. Work on show by Eve Arnold, Robert Capa and Andreas Gursky documents the epic and the everyday. Whereas for artists including Alexander Rodchenko, Joseph Beuys and Chris Ofili, the figure becomes an agent of social change – revolutionary, transgressive or symbolic.

Including painting, sculpture, photography and the moving image, this major art historical survey traces a story of modernism through its defining artists.

Featuring Acconci, Ackerman, Alÿs, Arnold, Atget, Bacon, Balkenhol, Beckmann, Bellows, Beuys, Boccioni, Boltanski,Bomberg, Brassäi, Broodthaers, Buckingham, Burri, Cahun, Capa, Calle, Carrà, Cardiff & Bures-Miller, Cartier-Bresson, Deacon & Fraser, Deller, DiCorcia, Dittborn, Doherty, Song Dong, Dubuffet, Duchamp, Durant, Ensor, Export, Evans, Fast, Giacomelli, Gilbert & George, Goldblatt, Goldin, Gordon, Grosz, Gupta, Gursky, Guston, Guzman, Hamilton, Heartfield, Hopper, Huyghe, Jonas, Katz, Keita, Kentridge, Kirchner, Klucis, Kollwitz, Leckey, Léger, Levitt, Magritte, Manet, Man Ray, McCarthy, McQueen, Modotti, Munch, Muñoz, Nauman, Ofili, Paolozzi, Pfeiffer, Picasso, Piper, Pistoletto, Prince, Richter, Rodchenko, Sala, Sander, Schad, Schütte, Sherman, Schneemann, Segal, Sickert, Sidibé, Singh, Strand & Sheeler, Toulouse-Lautrec, Vertov, Wall, Warhol, Wearing, Weegee, Wikström, Winogrand, Yeats.

Organised by the Whitechapel Gallery, London and Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin

Pressetext

Faces in the Crowd - Picturing Modern Life from Manet to Today
Organisation: Whitechapel Gallery, London, Castello di Rivoli, Turin

mit Vito Acconci, Francis Alÿs, Eve Arnold, Eugène Atget, Francis Bacon, Stephan Balkenhol, Max Beckmann, Joseph Beuys, Umberto Boccioni, Christian Boltanski, Brassaï, Marcel Broodthaers, René Burri, Claude Cahun, Sophie Calle, Robert Capa, Carlo Carrà, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Deacon & Fraser, Jeremy Deller, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Willie Doherty, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, James Ensor, VALIE EXPORT, Walker Evans, Omer Fast, Gilbert & George, David Goldblatt, Nan Goldin, Douglas Gordon, George Grosz, Subodh Gupta, Andreas Gursky, Philip Guston, Richard Hamilton, John Heartfield, Edward Hopper, Pierre Huyghe, Joan Jonas, Alex Katz, Seydou Keita, William Kentridge, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Käthe Kollwitz, Mark Leckey, Fernand Léger, Sol Le Witt, René Magritte, Édouard Manet, Man Ray, Paul McCarthy, Steve McQueen, Tina Modotti, Edvard Munch, Bruce Nauman, Chris Ofili, Eduardo Paolozzi, Paul Pfeiffer, Pablo Picasso, Adrian Piper, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Richard Prince, Gerhard Richter, Alexander Rodtschenko, Anri Sala, Christian Schad, Thomas Schütte, Cindy Sherman, Carolee Schneemann, George Segal, Malik Sidibé, Raghubir Singh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Dziga Vertov, Jeff Wall, Andy Warhol, Gillian Wearing, Weegee, Elin Wikström, Garry Winogrand, Jack B. Yeats, u.a.

Stationen:
03.12.04 - 06.03.05 Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
06.04.05 - 10.07.05 Castello di Rivoli, Turin