Richard Avedon’s “Italian days” will soon be seen in Gagosian – Rome

Roma – Richard Avadon’s “Italian days”, who will act as a “forerunner” who will inspire some of the most famous photos of the American photographer, are a boy with his hands on his face while looking at the sunny Sampia of a road in Rome, and then Zazi, a road artist and still the destruction of an Italy, but also back from the war of the war. Dance figures.
The New York photographer who brought about a revolution in fashion photography with his black -white portraits, often of large format, able to otherwise reveal the intimate and personal dimension of celebrities in the capital from 12 March to 17 May. The chance Italian daysA path that leads to Gagosian more than twenty photos made by Richard Avedon also in the streets of Sicily and Venice, of which eighteen of the series Italy (1946–48).

The exhibition, which has contained the work of Richard Avedon worldwide since 2011, is presented here for the first time in its entirety, in dialogue with portraits of iconic figures that embody his distinctive style. Avedon made several trips to Italy. In Rome he arrived in 1946, immediately after the end of the Second World War, when Italy was still largely inaccessible to visitors.
The series of photos taken in recent years has been crucial for the development of his refined approach of the portrait. Avedon was mainly attracted by the power of the Belpaese and by the enormous variety of human expressions and resilience that was observed everywhere. His interest in an authentic interaction between photographer and subject has transferred a depth of mind and a series of inimitable emotions on every image. In every few photos that are exposed to Gagosian visitors, a different compositive technique or strategy will see reflected that comes from the Italian images of Avedon. In every shot it seems to be a bit of novelism. Even the famous portrait of 1957 of a Marilyn Monroe with a lost look, or the statue of 1980 by Ruby Holden, employee of the Pagni Banco, of the iconic series In the American West (1979–84), they seem to have been expected by a portrait of the Roman road taken in 1947. In Rome the roots of joy and despair that Avedon has recorded in his representation of Monroe appears to arise and his 1963 himself also reminds the photo of a proud young Sicilian, repeated by the ashes. Also the protagonists of Italian days Again they show the constant attention of Avedon for a common humanity that transcends technology or circumstances. The gaze down that characterizes an image of the famous playwright Samuel Beckett, writer, Paris, April 13, 1979for example, is announced by the antecedent Italy #6, Rome, 1946, In which a boy carries his hands on his face while he looks at the Cobblestones. There have been lighter showers, such as those because of the American model Dorian Leigh with a cyclist on the Champs-Elysées, but also by Audrey Hepburn who was working on a dance with Fred Astaire on the funny facial set.
Italy, with its broken heart and its indomitable spirit, has illuminated the road despite everything.