The first major retrospective of his work since his death in 2004…

Dovima et les éléphants, Robe du soir de Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, 1955. Photographie Richard Avedon © 2008 the Richard Avedon Foundation


Organised by the Louisiana Museum in Humlebaek with the cooperation of the Richard Avedon Foundation, this exhibition surveys the whole of Richard Avedon’s career, starting with his first steps as a fashion photographer at the end of the Second World War.

Avedon continued to photograph the creations of the big Parisian couture houses up until 1984, working first for Harper’s Bazaar and then for Vogue. Finding fashion photography too static and stuffy, he transformed it by introducing movement and photographing his models in public spaces. He also made many portraits of celebrities from the worlds of literature, art and show business, always taking care to shatter the icon in order to reveal the true personality behind the public image.

In the 1960s, Avedon also ventured into photojournalism, covering such hot subjects as Civil Rights campaigners in the American South (1963), the Ku Klux Klan, patients in a mental hospital and the Vietnam war — both in the country itself, where he photographed military officers and napalm victims, and back home, where, a pacifist himself, he covered the hippie protests against the war.

Twiggy, coiffure de Ara Gallant, studio de Paris, janvier 1968. Photographie Richard Avedon © 2008 the Richard Avedon Foundation

In 1974 Avedon exhibited a series of his father, then dying of cancer, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. During this decade he continued his fashion photography and reportage, and also produced a series of 73 portraits of America’s political elite for Rolling Stone.

The early 1980s saw Avedon produce a long series of 700 portraits of middle class and poor Americans from the 17 western states. As if to refute the myth of the American West, these portraits, all taken outdoors against a white ground, show closed, tense and introverted faces with an intense but subjacent emotional power. At the end of the decade, a commission from the French magazine Égoïste gave Avedon the chance to cover the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The exhibition comprises over 270 photos taken between 1974 and 2004: fashion shots but also political figures, artists and authors are all presented. Originally shown at the Louisiana Museum and then in Milan, the Parisian version includes 40 extra photo from Avedon’s In the American West series, taken between 1979 and 1984.

During the time of the exhibition, the 1995 documentary Richard Avedon: Darkness & Light will be shown at 12.30pm, 2pm, 3.30pm and 5pm in the basement level of the museum. It includes a long interview with the photographer, as well as some looks at photo shoots and interviews with people who knew Avedon well. There is also a free tour of the exhibition (free with your ticket I mean) on 1st July at 7pm with Norma Stevens, director of The Richard Avedon Foundation, and Marta Gili, director of the Jeu de Paume, and a talk by Bernard Blistène, art critic and curator, on 4th July at 7pm (place must be reserved and are given on a frist come first served basis. Call +33 (0)1 47 03 12 41 or e-mail serviceculturel@jeudepaume.org).

Autoportrait, Provo, Utah, 20 août 1980. Photographie Richard Avedon © 2008 the Richard Avedon Foundation

Here’s all the essential information for the Richard Avedon exhibition at the Jeu de Paume in Paris

Where: Jeu de Paume (Concorde site), 1 place de la Concorde, Paris 8th arrondissement, métro Concorde (lines 1, 8 & 12), bus n°s 24, 42, 72, 73, 84 & 94
When: 1st July – 28th September 2008
Opening hours: Tuesday: midday – 9pm, Wednesday – Friday: midday – 7pm, Saturday and Sunday: 10am – 7pm. Closed Mondays. Opens at 1pm on 14th July
Price of admission: adults 7 euros, concession 4 euros
Richard Avedon Wikipedia page: here
More info: on the official site here.

Bigger map here