This exhibition showcases contemporary photography from the Telefónica Collection, focusing on the pivotal period from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. It delves into a critical moment of change in artistic photography and its definitive incorporation into art circuits.
This exhibition, featuring over 50 photographs, centers on a key moment in the history of photography: the period from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. This era marked profound changes in how photography was conceived and used within the artistic sphere, leading to its definitive integration into art circuits. The selection explores this transformative period, analyzing its consequences and the evolution of photographic art.
The exhibition begins by contextualizing the period with works from artists like Richard Prince, John Baldessari, and Sherrie Levine. It then delves into the photography of the 1980s, presenting two main currents: American postmodernism, exemplified by Jeff Wall and his large-scale images that bridge the pictorial and the documentary, and the Düsseldorf School, influenced by Bernd and Hilla Becher's scientific approach to photography. The American section critically examines photographic representation and deconstruction, while the Düsseldorf School reinterprets historical avant-gardes with a focus on detachment, serialization, and systematicity, often incorporating color and emphasizing the image as a produced entity rather than a mere record of reality. The exhibition acknowledges the permeability of these ideas, showing how they influenced other artists and evolved, ultimately challenging rigid classification systems.
