Revealed: Artists Exposed through Photographs at the Sofitel Wanda
The photography exhibit Revealed, currently on view at Sofitel Wanda, provides a peek into the personalities behind some of the greatest works of art of our time. The show ends on Sunday after a successful run in Beijing, preceded by a 10 city tour through Sofitel hotels in North America and Europe. Revealed pulls roughly 30 photographs from the archives of the popular French weekly, Paris Match, and features a motley crew of famous artists at work and at leisure. Viewers are invited into spaces and creative processes so personal we feel we must whisper lest we intrude on some creative genius.
Curator Olivier Widmaier Picasso is familiar with this creative genius – as a writer and film artist himself, he more famously shares his surname with his grandfather, artist Pablo Picasso. For this show, the curator has selected images documenting the elder Picasso, as well as artists Rene Magritte, Marc Chagall, Joan Miro, Francis Bacon, Jeff Koons, and more. Artists are linked to each other not only by Paris Match's documentary style portraits but also by the legacies they have left behind in the annals of art.
Some photographs in the exhibit are clearly posed, such as the image of Jean Cocteau, who stands akimbo beneath a huge fresco looking ever so dandy, rolling his eyes up at his own Matisse-like interpretation of Jesus. Other photographs in the exhibit are intensely intimate, such as the photo of a Joan Miro hunched over his canvas, with nary any objects but for a few in his cavernous studio. It's no surprise that his studio space is as pared down as some of his paintings. A couple photos are downright bizarre, such as the image of Salvador Dali painting an art-appreciating rhino inside the animal’s own enclosure, the artist using a wheelbarrow to prop himself up. But honestly, we don’t expect less from a man who gave us melting clocks.
Revealed is an art historian’s treasure chest, allowing viewers to glean more about the works of art from the lives in which they were created. In a world where images are recognized before names, and names before faces, this exhibit finally connects the former to the latter, revealing far more than what we typically see in one art exhibit.
Revealed is up through Sunday, September 20 at Sofitel Wanda. The hotel also provides two art-inspired dining specials on the occasion of the exhibit, available through the end of September. A special Revealed cocktail is also available at the hotel’s Vous Lounge.
Photos courtesy of the organizer
