Synopses & Reviews
In a career that spanned much of the twentieth century, Hungarian-born photographer André Kertész (1894-1985) created deceptively simple yet compelling and poetic photographs. This book presents approximately 120 of these striking images as well as previously unpublished archival material that sheds important light on the artist and his work.
Like the exhibition it accompanies, André Kertész takes us through Kertész's years in Budapest, Paris, and New York. Unlike other works on Kertész, it presents only vintage prints and includes several seldom seen photographs from throughout his career.
Written by renowned art historian Sarah Greenough and Kertész Foundation curator Robert Gurbo, André Kertész includes excerpts from the photographer's previously unexamined journals and correspondence--documents that prompted the authors to reexamine every period of Kertész's life and work. They reflect on their findings in essays covering each of the major phases in Kertész's career.
While the book includes examples of the artist's most important photographs, including Chez Mondrian, The Satiric Dancer, and The Eiffel Tower, it also focuses on the intensely autobiographical nature of his work. It elegantly demonstrates the ways in which Kertész injected his persona, both literally and metaphorically, into his work.
Accompanying the book's essays and exquisite tritone reproductions of his photographs are an illustrated chronology that corrects many previous errors, a comprehensive bibliography, and selections of previously unpublished writings by the photographer.
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE:
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/exhibits.htm National Gallery of Art, Washington
February 6-May 15, 2005
http://www.lacma.org/ Los Angeles County Museum of Art
June 12-September 5, 2005
Review
One of the great romantic photographers of the 20th century, Andre Kertesz, finally receives his due. Joanna Shaw-Eagle, The Washington Times
Review
an excellent catalog that provides an unusually illuminating biography of the artist. Ken Johnson, The New York Times
Review
"You don't need words, when images speak. Andre Kertesz saw with his heart's eye." David Elliott, The San Diego Union-Tribune
Review
"Andre Kertesz, one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century, created poetic images." Photo Life
Synopsis
"Kertész always insisted, only somewhat disingenuously, that he was, as he called it, an 'amateur.' And so he was in a way. Not in the sense of the unskilled or unprofessional hack, but in the root sense of the word, as someone who does what he does not for fame and fortune, but for love. . . . What he tried to maintain in his art was, as curator Sarah Greenough points out . . . a kind of artistic virginity. Kertész's genius was his passion, his romanticism, his knack for seeing something fresh, as if it had never been looked at, at least not quite that way, before."--Michael O'Sullivan, The Washington Post
Table of Contents
Director's Forward viii
Lender's to the Exhibition xi
Introduction xii
A Hungarian Diary, 1894-1925 by Sarah Greenough 1
Plates 1-32
To Become a Virgin Again, 1925-1936 by Sarah Greenough 59
Plates 33-74
The Circle of Confusion, 1936-1961 by Robert Gurbo 141
Plates 75-95
La Réunion, 1962-1985 by Robert Gurbo 191
Plates 94-116
Chronology, 1894-1985 by Sarah Kennel 245
Notes 269
Acknowledgments 285
Checklist of the Exhibition 289
Selected Bibliography 295
Index 299
Photographic Credits 302