by Alain Chivilò
© Alain Chivilò
For the first time at Tate, Tate Britain, Hermann Wilhelm Brandt, among the celebrated British photographer, is on show with 44 photos. Known as Bill Brandt German by birth was naturalized English (Hamburg 3/5/1904 – London 20/12/1983).
Bill Brandt, known as a photojournalist, has renowned in the 1930s for his observations of British life and later for landscapes, portraits and nudes.
Looking his shots, Brandt made a constant research employing formal experimentation and artistic interventions to evoke the surreal beauty he saw in everyday life.
His photographs are a constant study, consequently the apparent cultured spontaneity is the result of an expectation, of a synergy and symbiosis with the selected subject. So as he said: “the spell that charges the commonplace with beauty”.
No people unaware but all predetermined according to his eye: “A photographer must be prepared to catch and hold on to those elements which give distinction to the subject or lend it atmosphere”.
In the development phase of his photos Brandt intervened directly, enlarging, opening, removing, cutting, playing between shadow and brightness, using pencil and ink for new effects, surreal and abstract worlds, like in a contemporary sculpture, seeking possibly superfine settings.
This exhibition celebrates his theatrical direction of people and setting, his mastery of composition and abstraction, and his dialogues with the work of other artists. The show “Bill Brandt: Inside the Mirror” is curated by Carol Jacobi, Curator of British Art 1850–1915 and James Finch, Assistant Curator of 19th Century British Art at Tate Britain, supported by Yasufumi Nakamori, Senior Curator of International Art (Photography), Tate Modern.
Bill Brandt: Inside the Mirror
Tate Britain, London
24 Oct 2022 – 15 Jan 2023
Admission Free
by Alain Chivilò
© Alain Chivilò
For the first time at Tate, Tate Britain, Hermann Wilhelm Brandt, among the celebrated British photographer, is on show with 44 photos. Known as Bill Brandt German by birth was naturalized English (Hamburg 3/5/1904 – London 20/12/1983).
Bill Brandt, known as a photojournalist, has renowned in the 1930s for his observations of British life and later for landscapes, portraits and nudes.
Looking his shots, Brandt made a constant research employing formal experimentation and artistic interventions to evoke the surreal beauty he saw in everyday life.
His photographs are a constant study, consequently the apparent cultured spontaneity is the result of an expectation, of a synergy and symbiosis with the selected subject. So as he said: “the spell that charges the commonplace with beauty”.
No people unaware but all predetermined according to his eye: “A photographer must be prepared to catch and hold on to those elements which give distinction to the subject or lend it atmosphere”.
In the development phase of his photos Brandt intervened directly, enlarging, opening, removing, cutting, playing between shadow and brightness, using pencil and ink for new effects, surreal and abstract worlds, like in a contemporary sculpture, seeking possibly superfine settings.
This exhibition celebrates his theatrical direction of people and setting, his mastery of composition and abstraction, and his dialogues with the work of other artists. The show “Bill Brandt: Inside the Mirror” is curated by Carol Jacobi, Curator of British Art 1850–1915 and James Finch, Assistant Curator of 19th Century British Art at Tate Britain, supported by Yasufumi Nakamori, Senior Curator of International Art (Photography), Tate Modern.
Bill Brandt: Inside the Mirror
Tate Britain, London
24 Oct 2022 – 15 Jan 2023
Admission Free
by Alain Chivilò
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