Elysée Lausanne Save the dateElysée Lausanne

The Beauty of Lines. Masterpieces from the Gilman and Gonzalez-Falla collectionFrom January 31 to May 6, 2018

Press kit

2/14Press kitThe Beauty of Lines Elysée Lausanne 2/7

From January 31 to May 6, 2018The Beauty of Lines. Masterpieces from the Gilman and Gonzalez-Falla collection

The exhibition presents a selection of masterpieces from the history of photography, part of the collection of Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez-Falla. Based in New York, it includes over 1500 original prints by some of the greatest photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Through visual confrontations, the visitor is invited to experience the power of the photographic line through these sublime works. The photographs by Berenice Abbott, Robert Adams, Walker Evans, Rineke Dijkstra, Man Ray and Lee Friedlander, among others, thus resonate, beyond their historical temporality and geographic considerations, by their formal correspondences.

Throughout history, photographers have always oscillated between two extremes: the mimetic illusion of reality and the enhancement of the esthetic qualities of the image. Whether it be “instantaneous lines”, according to the expression of Henri Cartier-Bresson, rational lines inspired from New Topographics, or the diversity of the curved lines of the human body, the line structures and sometimes reinvents the real – to the point of abstraction.

In the case of photography, spectators, even the most discriminating, often first observe the world that they are presented with. They scrutinize the face or the landscape, they marvel at the details, the fashionable clothes, the expressions on the children’s faces. In other words, they can forget that they are actually looking at a piece of paper, as flat as a page in a book or a drawing. Fascinated by the mimetic illusion, they might not even see the lines – straight, curved, oblique – that actually form the basis of the photographic composition.

CuratorsTatyana Franck, director, Musée de l’ElyséePauline Martin, curator, Musée de l’Elysée, assisted by EmilieSchmutz, assistant in the Exhibitions Department

Press conference: Tuesday, January 30 at 10am Opening: Tuesday, January 30 at 6pm

Cover : Augusto Cantamessa, Breve Orizzonte, 1955 © Augusto Cantamessa, concession de Bruna Genovesio et Patrik LosanoKarl Blossfeldt (1865-1932), Dryopteris filix, Wurmfarn (Common Male Fern), 1928Ray K. Metzker, New Mexico, 1971 © Estate of Ray K. Metzker

3/14Press kitThe Beauty of Lines Elysée Lausanne 3/7

Straight linesFrom the controlled to the spontaneous line By confronting works by artists such as Stéphane Couturier, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Lewis Baltz and Robert Adams, this section emphasizes the importance of the lines of force of the image and of the feelings that emerge when they are strictly parallel or, instead, at least in appearance, more spontaneous.

Curved linesThe essence of bodies and of the lineWith works by Edward Weston, Bill Brandt, André Kertész, Robert Mapplethorpe, Léon Levinstein and Berenice Abbott, among others, this section shows that the curve defines all male and female bodies, photographed as a whole or in detail.

Abstractions The line in its purest formThis section encompasses the photographs of Aaron Siskind, Minor White, Ray K. Metzker and Harry Callahan, whose reference to the real world disappears, initially revealing the lines of abstraction of the image.

The Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez-Falla collection first reveals the pleasure of the collectors who buy, above all, by personal preference and who maintain an everyday and private relationship with the images in their collection. In the same way, the exhibition invites the visitor to take an esthetic journey: formal confrontations are freed from their cultural and historic context to allow the visitor to experience his or her own personal and sensitive relationship to the photographic image.

Exhibition cataloguePublished in French and English by the Musée de l’Elysée and Editions Noir sur Blanc, the book The Beauty of Lines from the Gilman and Gonzalez-Falla collection, accompanies the exhibition.

Stéphane Couturier, Barendrecht n° 1, 2004 © Stéphane Couturier, Courtesy La Galerie Particulière, Paris, BruxellesCover of the book La Beauté des lignesLewis Hine, On The Hoist, Empire State Building, 1931

4/14Press kitThe Beauty of Lines Elysée Lausanne 4/7

Index of the photographers

ABBOTT Berenice (1898-1991)ADAMS Ansel Easton (1902-1984)ADAMS Robert (1937)BADESSI Laurent Elie (1964)BALTZ Lewis (1945-2014)BING Ilse (1899-1998)BLACKMON Julie (1966)BLOSSFELDT Karl (1865-1932)BOURKE-WHITE Margaret (1904-1971)BRANDT Bill (1904-1983)BULLOCK Wynn (1902-1975)BURTYNSKY Ed (1955)CALLAHAN Harry (1912-1999)CANTAMESSA Augusto (1927)CARTIER-BRESSON Henri (1908-2004)CLARK Larry (1943)COLLINS Ken (1948)COUTURIER Stéphane (1957)CUNNINGHAM Imogen (1883-1976)DAVIDSON Bruce (1933)DIJKSTRA Rineke (1959)DOISNEAU Robert (1912-1994)DRTIKOL František (1883-1961)EGGLESTON William (1939)EVANS Walker (1903-1975)FARRI Stanislao (1924)FRANK Robert (1924)FRIEDLANDER Lee (1934)GARNETT William (1916-2006)GIBSON Ralph (1939)GOLDIN Nan (1953)HARVEY Cig (1973)HELG Béatrice (1956)HILLIARD David (1964)HINE Lewis (1874-1940)HÖFER Candida (1944)ISHIMOTO Yasuhiro (1921-2012)ITURBIDE Graciela (1942)KASTEN Barbara (1936)KEETMAN Peter (1916-2005)KENNA Michael (1953)KERTÉSZ André (1894-1985)KLETT Mark (1952)KOUDELKA Josef (1938)LEVINSTEIN Leon (1910-1988)LEVITT Helen (1913-2009)LUX Loretta (1969)MAN RAY (1890-1976)MANN Sally (1951)MAPPLETHORPE Robert (1946-1989)METZKER Ray. K (1931-2014)MODEL Lisette (1901-1983)MORELL Abelardo (1948)MUNIZ Vik (1961)NAGUIT Ramon (attribué à)

OUTERBRIDGE Paul (1896-1958)PÉREZ BRAVO Marta Maria (1959)PLACHY Sylvia (1943)RENGER-PATZSCH Albert (1897-1966)RIBOUD Marc (1923-2016)RODCHENKO Alexander (1891-1956)ROSSITER Alison (1953)SERRANO Andres (1950)SHAHN Ben (1898-1969)SISKIND Aaron (1903-1991)SOTH Alec (1969)STEICHEN Edward (1879-1973)STETTNER Louis (1922)STRAND Paul (1890-1976)STRUTH Thomas (1954)SUDEK Josef (1896-1976)SUGIMOTO Hiroshi (1948)THORNE-THOMSEN Ruth (1943)WEBB Todd (1905-2000)WESTON Edward (1886-1958)WHITE Minor (1908-1976)

5/14Press kitThe Beauty of Lines Elysée Lausanne 5/7

The images reproduced in the press kit and below areavailable for the press. Their use is exclusively limited to thepromotion of the exhibition The Beauty of Lines and cannot be reformatted or modified. Please use the captions as they are indicated.

Media contact Julie Maillard

+41 (0)21 316 99 27 julie.maillard@vd.ch

Abelardo Morell, Book with Wavy Pages, 2001 © Abelardo Morell, Courtesy of the artist and Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York and Zurich

At Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez’s place © Ayline Olukman

Cig Harvey, The Pale Yellow Cadillac, Sadie, Portland, Maine, 2010 © Cig Harvey

Laurent Elie Badessi, Man’s Back, Horse’s Back, Camargue, France, 1994 © Laurent Elie Badessi

Walker Evans, Ossining, People in Summer, NY State Town, 1931 © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

6/14Press kitThe Beauty of Lines Elysée Lausanne 6/7

Global Partner

Preferred Partners

Main Partners

Patrons and Institutional Partners

Official suppliers

Media Partners

Partners

The Musée de l’Elysée thanks its valued partners for their support in 2018

7/14Press kitThe Beauty of Lines Elysée Lausanne 7/7

Practical information

Press contactJulie Maillard +41 (0)21 316 99 27julie.maillard@vd.ch

Address18, avenue de l’ElyséeCH - 1014 LausanneT + 41 21 316 99 11www.elysee.ch

Twitter @ElyseeMuseeFacebook facebook.com/elysee.lausanne

Hashtags#Gilman

HoursTu - Su, 11am - 6pm Closed on Mondays, except bank holidays Open until 8pm the last Thursday of the month

The Musée de l’Elyséeis an institutionof the Canton de Vaud

Musée de l’Elysée © Reto Duriet