Transcript the press release - Elliott Erwitt

ELLIOT ERWITT KOLOR
Genoa, Sottoporticato di Palazzo Ducale
11th February – 16th July 2017
Palazzo Ducale presents the first great retrospective exhibition of colour photos by the renowned
photographer Elliott Erwitt. It will be a unique and unprecedented event. While black and white
photos by the great master have been widely exhibited both abroad and in Italy with much
success, his colour production has never been on show in Italy before.
As a matter of fact, only recently has Erwitt set off on a journey, which has taken him several
months to sieve through his huge archive of colour photos, a technique he had decided to use only
for his publishing, institutional, and advertising work. It ranges from political to social topics, from
architecture to the movie industry and fashion. They are actually quite different photos, which he
looked at again after several decades with a critical and contemporary view. These pictures help
us learn about a parallel and yet equally unique world.
The resulting exhibit is quite surprising in its elegant arrangement, use of colour, irony, at times
even humorous touch, without mentioning Erwitt's versatile approach to photography that has
made him so much loved and unique. The exhibition consists of about 135 pictures personally
selected by Elliott Erwitt from his two great colour projects, namely, Kolor and The Art of André S.
Solidor.
Kolor is the title of his great retrospective book for which Erwitt has laboriously sorted through his
entire archive of colour photos. Conversely, the Art of André S. Solidor is a funny and subtly
hilarious parody of the world of contemporary art and all its nonsense and absurdities.
For the first project, Erwitt has tapped into his old Kodak negatives characterised by his typical
language, and ranging from portraits of VIPs to genuinely ironic and even irreverent pictures. In the
André S. Solidor project, conversely, he creates an actual alter ego of himself, with self-portraits,
expressed through a production which is no longer based on random shots and intuition, as also
well demonstrated in a short and funny video.
André S. Solidor loves digital photography as well as photoshop, gratuitous nakedeness and
eccentricity per se, and yet he looks like Elliott Erwitt more than it would seem: irony, metaphors,
and plain surreal fun underlie a more serious reflection on the nonsense and absurdities of
contemporary art and its market.
Since 1953 Erwitt has been a member of Magnum, the historic photo agency founded by leading
photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa. With his photo-reporter outlook he
has documented the last sixty years of contemporary history and civilisation, highlighting the
dramatic but also amusing aspects of the life he has witnessed through his camera. "During the
saddest and darkest times of your life, when for weeks you feel swallowed up in misery, the
sudden view of something beautiful may change the way things look, as well as your mood. The
kind of photos I like, those that catch the moment are very similar to a silver lining. In a flash, a
beautiful snapshot seems to come out of nowhere". That is why he has been referred to as the
photographer of the human comedy.
Marilyn Monroe, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Sophia Loren, and Arnold Schwarzenegger are only
some of the many celebrities portrayed with his camera and featured in this exhibition. Erwitt
directs his sharp but at the same time empathic look on all of them, disclosing not only the irony
but also the complexity of our daily lives. By maintaining the same attitude towards any other
subject, Erwitt maximises the democratic character of photography. Actually, his world is mostly
populated by ordinary people, namely men and women caught while living their normal lives.
Born in Paris in 1928 of a Russian family of Jewish origins, Elliott Erwitt spent his childhood in Italy
and moved to the United States in 1939, where he lived first in New York and then in Los Angeles.
Speaking about Italian racial laws he once said: “It’s thanks to Benito Mussolini that I'm American”.
A multimedia section at the end of the exhibition features two videos about Erwitt's long career as
a TV author and director, and a video collection of some of his most famous black and white
pictures.
The ticket to the exhibition includes an audio guide which will give visitors valuable explanatory
information about the photos. Collected and documented by the curator and the author himself,
such information has never been published before.
The exhibition has been curated by Biba Giacchetti, with graphic and set up design by Fabrizio
Confalonieri. Promoted by the Municipality of Genoa and Fondazione di Palazzo Ducale, the
exhibit has been produced by Civita Mostre in collaboration with SudEst57.
INFORMATION SHEET
Title
ELLIOT ERWITT KOLOR
Period
11th February – 16th July 2017
Location
Sottoporticato di Palazzo Ducale
Genoa, Piazza Matteotti, 9
Opening Hours
Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Ticket office closes one hour before exhibition closing time.
Special openings
Monday, April 17th
Monday, April 24th
Monday, May 1st
Tickets (audio guide included)
Standard € 11.00 ticket;
Discounted € 9.00 ticket: disabled individuals, teachers, visitors from 19 to 27 years (they must
show ID and/or University card), groups of 15 to 25 people, holders of ticket to “Modigliani”
exhibition and of the following cards: Italian Touring Club, Arci, FeltrinelliCard, holders of Carlo
Felice Theater and Teatro Stabile di Genova season ticket, Amici dei Musei e di Palazzo Ducale,
Teatro della Tosse Card, Musei di Genova, holders of admission tickets to Musei di Strada Nuova,
employees of IREN with one accompanying person, holders of Genoa's hotels discount coupons,
holders of AMT annual ticket, Members of Fondazione Ansaldo, conference attendees (they must
show badge with name on it), ACI card, FAI members and BNL's employees.
€ 4.00 special discounted ticket for schools and children from 6 to 14.
Free for children under 6, people accompanying disabled people, journalists and tourist guides,
one leader per group, two accompanying teachers per school class, ICOM members
€ 5.00 special discounted ticket every Friday for visitors under 27; CUS card holders all weekday
afternoons from 2.00 p.m.
Joint ticket also for the Exhibition “Henri Cartier-Bresson Photographer”
(Loggia degli Abati, 11th March through 11th June 2017)
€ 15.00 standard
€ 5.00 joint ticket for schools, visitors under 18
Booking fees
€ 1.50: standard, discounted, group tickets
€ 1.00: special discounted tickets for schools, visitors under 18, CUS card holders
Guided Tours
€ 100.00 groups
€ 70.00 schools
€ 120.00 guided tours in foreign languages
Information
199.15.11.21 (for international calls 02 89096942)
[email protected]
www.palazzoducale.genova.it
www.mostraerwitt.it
Press Offices
Palazzo Ducale Fondazione per la Cultura
Camilla Talfani, [email protected]
T.+39 0108171612; M. +39 3357316687
Civita
Giulia Borroni [email protected] T. + 39 0243353527
Barbara Izzo-Arianna Diana [email protected] - [email protected]
T. +39 06692050220-258; www.civita.it