Faces in the Crowd

Édouard Manet's Le Bal masqué à l'Opéra, 1873, from the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is identified as a point of departure for Faces in the Crowd, which, with the presentation of works by masters such as Edward Hopper, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Cindy Sherman, Juan Muñoz, and Jeff Wall, proposes to trace a history of the figurative avant-garde. The 'haiku' poem In a Station of the Metro (A una fermata del Métro), written by Ezra Pound in 1926 after a trip on the Paris Metro, provides a concise and powerful image of the modern condition, characterized above all by the emergence of a new subjectivity: "The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough."

The exhibition includes paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, installations, film, and video by artists Acconci, Alÿs, Arnold, Atget, Bacon, Beckmann, Bellows, Beuys, Boltanski, Bomberg, Brassaï, Broodthaers, Buckingham, R. Burri, Cahun, Capa, Calle, Cardiff & Bures-Miller, Cartier-Bresson, Carrà, Deller, DiCorcia, Dittborn, Dix, Doherty, Dubuffet, Duchamp, Export, Evans, Fast, Giacomelli, Giacometti, Gilbert & George, Gordon, Goldin, Grosz, Gupta, Gursky, Guston, Guzmán, Hamilton, Heartfield, Hopper, Huyghe, Katz, Keïta, Kentridge, Kirchner, Klucis, Kollwitz, 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, Schneeman, Segal, Sickert, Sidibé, Song Dong, Strand & Sheeler, Vertov, Wall, Warhol, and Wearing.

From the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, the individual has been confronted with the crowd of the modern metropolis - a place of fleeting and anonymous encounters. People are pervaded with a profound sense of solitude, or, on the contrary, they are enthusiastic about the possibilities offered for the creation of a new identity. A specifically modern art developed out of this condition. The spectator is part of the scene, like the city-dweller in modern society.

For this exhibition loans have been obtained from important public institutions, including the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; The British Museum, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, as well as from numerous private collections.

Pressetext

Faces in the Crowd. Images of modern life from Manet to today
Kuratoren: Iwona Blazwick, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Kooperation: Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporaryvolti Art

Werke von Vito Acconci, Francis Alÿs, Eugène Atget, Eve Arnold, Francis Bacon, Max Beckmann, George Wesley Bellows, Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Georges Brassaï, Marcel Broodthaers, Matthew Buckingham, René Burri, Claude Cahun, Robert Capa, Sophie Calle, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Carlo Carrà, Jeremy Deller, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Otto Dix, Willie Doherty, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, VALIE EXPORT, Omer Fast, Mario Giacomelli, Alberto Giacometti, Gilbert & George, Douglas Gordon, Nan Goldin, George Grosz, Subodh Gupta, Andreas Gursky, Philip Guston, Daniel Guzman, Richard Hamilton, John Heartfield, Edward Hopper, Pierre Huyghe, Alex Katz, Seydou Keita, William Kentridge, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Käthe Kollwitz, Fernand Léger, Sol Le Witt, René Magritte, Édouard Manet, Man Ray, Paul McCarthy, Steve McQueen, Tina Modotti, Edvard Munch, Juan Muñoz, 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, Song Dong, Paul Strand & Charles Sheeler, Dziga Vertov, Jeff Wall, Andy Warhol, Gillian Wearing, u.a.

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