COLLECTION NAME:
University Art Galleries (UMassD)
Record
exhibition_title:
Italy: One Hundred Years of Photography
exhibition_dates:
November 3 - December 8, 1990
exhibition_year:
1990
exhibition_location:
University Art Gallery (UMass Dartmouth Galleries)
exhibition_curator:
Circulated by The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington, D.C.
exhibition_curator:
Co-sponsored by the Italian Literacy and Mutual Aid Society, New Bedford
exhibition_curator:
Exhibition sponsored by Ferruzzi Group: Montedison, Eridania
exhibition_curator:
Organized by The Fratelli Alinari Museum of Photography, Florence, Italy
exhibition_note:
A century of romanticism and realism seen through the camera lens brings the history and culture of Italy evocatively into focus. From early masterpieces staged in the << posing room >> to images made from the most advanced techniques of satellite photography, a composite emerges of a country that is as diverse as it is transitive. Italy is seen from the traditional to the technical, from peasant farming to high fashion. The Fratelli Alinari Museum of Photography in Florence, representing one of the most important centers of historic, scientific, and artistic documentation of photography, has produced, with the curatorship of Cesare Colombo, a retrospective of the past one hundred years of Italian culture, personality, and development. Included are images by some of the greatest signatures of Italian photography, notably the Alinaris, Giacomo Brogi and Count Primoli. Next to these appear works by many of their foreign counterparts, such as Alfred Eisenstaedt, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Henri Cartier- Bresson and Robert Capa. The magic of the country and of the photographers combine, again and again, to create remarkable impressions of the past. The 162 photographs, divided into six chronological sections, explore not only the technical and aesthetic evolution of the photographic imagine but also the economic, social, and cultural changes that Italy has undergone in the last century. The period surrounding Italy's political unification and its development from an agricultural to an industrial society was recorded with cameras that employs 9"x12" glass plate negatives, which produced images that were extraordinary in their clarity and incisiveness. Revolutionary inventions such as the portable box camera and Kodak's roll film were used in photographing the battlefields of World War I. Later, the 35 mm camera permitted a creative freedom that came directly into conflict with the repressive fascist dictatorship. World War II and its aftermath were covered by a plethora of photographic news agencies. In turn, weekly picture magazines tracked the effects of Italy's post-war economic boom and la dolce vita of the 1950s. Fashion photography soon reached unprecedented heights, while later works reflected the demise of photojournalism and the subsequent growth of a more subjective, introspective style of photography. Traveling under the auspices of SITES (the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibitions Service), this show will visit over thirty locations throughout the US and Canada over a five-year period. It is accompanied by a catalog with and introduction by Susan Sontag and texts by the most representative figures of Italian government and by Raul Gardini, president of the sponsoring Ferruzzi Group, Montedison and Eridania. Both major cities and smaller towns will be hosting the exhibition in hopes that this overview of Italian photogenic history and social development may reach as many sectors of the North American public as possible. The past is filled with the movements of men and ideas crossing in both directions of the Atlantic. These exchanges have created a great bond between Italy and America a bond that can only be strengthened by a more profound understanding of the respective cultures. This exhibition wishes to further that understanding.
exhibition_genre:
photographs
resourceID:
13009_013_italy_photography
resource_type:
book - exhibition catalog
copyright notice:
COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION: Under the direction of the Visual Resource Center digital collections are made available to the UMass Dartmouth campus community for the sole purpose of classroom instruction and study in accordance U.S. Copyright Laws . All other uses are prohibited and are subject to copyright infringements.
credit line:
UMass Dartmouth Art Galleries
date_of_ record:
10/15/13
name_cataloger:
jtrinh