ERWIN BLUMENFELD | JEU DE PAUME | PARIS

erwin blumenfeld, variation of the photograph published in life magazine and titled “the picasso girl” c. 1941–1942. ink jet printing on canson baryta paper. posthumous print (2012). collection henry blumenfeld © the estate of erwin blumenfeld

erwin blumenfeld, nude under wet veil, paris, 1937. gelatin silver print, vintage print, switzerland, private collection © the estate of erwin blumenfeld

erwin blumenfeld, mode-montage, c. 1950. gelatin silver print, vintage print, collection helaine and yorick blumenfeld, courtesy of modernism Inc., san francisco © the estate of erwin blumenfeld

erwin blumenfeld, variation on the cover photograph of vogue us, “do your part for the red cross”, march 15th, 1945, ink jet printing on canson baryta paper, posthumous print (2012), collection henry blumenfeld © the estate of erwin blumenfeld

erwin blumenfeld, in hoc signo vinces [in this sign you will conquer], 1967. gelatin silver print, vintage print, switzerland, private collection © the estate of erwin blumenfeld

erwin blumenfeld, untitled, new york, 1944. gelatin silver print, vintage print, collection henry blumenfeld © the estate of erwin blumenfeld

erwin blumenfeld, hitler (with swastika), grauenfresse, [hitler (with swastika), face of terror]
holland, 1933. collage and ink on photomontage (gelatin silver print, double-exposition), multiple negatives, collection helaine and yorick blumenfeld, courtesy of modernism inc., san francisco © the estate of erwin blumenfeld

"All my portraits are reflections caught in my eye. Every artist lives from variations on a single theme. Whether he writes by hand on paper or with his foot on the sand, the signature remains the same [...] every picture is a short story, complete in itself". Erwin Blumenfled.

Devoted to André Kertész, Lee Miller and Eva Besnyö, the Jeu de Paume presents a retrospective looking back a lifetime of work by one of the leading European photographer from the same generation, Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969), whose work contributed to the spread of modern photography. This exhibition traces his visual creativity and encompasses the early drawings, the collages and montages, which mostly stem from the early 1920s, the beginnings of his portrait art in Holland, the first black and white fashion photographs of the Paris period, the masterful colour photography created in New York and the urban photos taken toward the end of his life. 

"What characterises Blumenfeld’s work is precisely its capacity for creating “visual conflicts,” achieved through the experimental technical and aesthetic methods extolled by the “New Photography” and by the Surrealist and Dada movements between 1920 and 1940 (such as the superimposition of negatives, collage, montage, solarisation and
multiple exposures), as well as through drawing, watercolor and typography". Marta Gili, director of the Jeu de Paume.

Erwin Blumenfeld, (1897-1969), Photographs, drawings and photomontages
October 15, 2013 - January 26, 2014, Jeu de Paume, Paris

 jeudepaume.org