The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg Presents Henri Cartier-Bresson's Landscapes

Written by Gunther Badenhorst Thursday, 15 September 2011 00:50

Wolfsburg, Germany.- The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg is proud to present "Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Geometry of the Moment", on view at the museum  through May 13th 2012. Henri Cartier-Bresson was the acknowledged ‘master of the moment’. With this presentation of around 100 photographs and 7 drawings by the renowned French artist, the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg is featuring another pioneering figure in its series of “Great Modernist Photographers”, which has to date included Brassaï, Lee Miller and Edward Steichen. Born in a suburb of Paris in 1908, Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photographic career began in 1930 and continued until 1972, when he decided to concentrate all his energies on drawing. After escaping from a German prisoner-of-war camp in 1943 he joined the French Resistance, and in 1947 he co-founded the now world-famous Magnum photo agency with four colleagues.

On his extensive travels around the world Cartier-Bresson always worked with an unobtrusive Leica rangefinder camera that enabled him to select the right shot within a fraction of a second and capture the “decisive moment”. His modest use of technical equipment and characteristic artistic method are particularly impressive for their monastic simplicity. With the relaxed concentration of a Zen archer, Cartier-Bresson successfully aligned the head, eye and heart to create carefully composed images that combine the spontaneity of the moment with timeless validity. Following the major survey exhibition held in Berlin in 2003, the Wolfsburg show examines this particular aspect of Cartier-Bresson’s work on the basis of a selection of photographs compiled by the artist himself (who died in 2004) under the heading of Paysages (Landscapes). Cartier-Bresson’s wife and fellow photographer Martine Franck has generously agreed to lend a rare group of his drawings from her private collection. "Henri Cartier-Bresson. The Geometry of the Moment" has been organized in cooperation with the photographic agency Magnum Paris and takes up themes from previous exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum such as "Japan and the West. Fulfilled Emptiness", "The Wolfsburg Project" by James Turrell, and the Alberto Giacometti retrospective "The Origin of Space". At the same time it complements the large-scale thematic exhibition "The Art of Deceleration. Motion and Rest in Art from Caspar David Friedrich to Ai Weiwei", which is being shown in the central hall from 5 November 2011 to 9 April 2012.


The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg was planned and opened as a lively and dynamic center for the public presentation of modern and contemporary art. As a cultural and social institution with a mission of information and visual education, the Kunstmuseum is supported by a private foundation. Its conception, based on a developing permanent collection and an ongoing program of special exhibitions, makes the Kunstmuseum into an open forum rich in contrasts, echoes, and cadences. This is no hermetically enclosed temple of the Muses. The major strands of its work connect with aspects of life in the modern industrial city of Wolfsburg, home to a world-class corporation: themes of modernity, urban living, internationalism, quality, and variety of form. The wide scope of the exhibition program covers presentations of the classics of Modernism together with internationally established contemporaries and younger, innovative artists. Equal emphasis is assigned to traditional and new media in visual art. The permanent collection specializes in a select range of positions within contemporary art. The architect's office Schweger and Partner, Hamburg, has designed the Kunstmuseum building as an open, transparent urban loggia, with a wide-span glass roof. The great central hall, with its floor area of 40 by 40 m (130 by 130 ft.), and height of 16 m (52 ft.), is flanked on three sides by exhibition galleries. A separate, two-story gallery offers further exhibition space. The Museum sees as vital the task of bringing modern and contemporary art to a wider public. It offers its visitors gallery tours, seminars, lectures, and workshops for all ages. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.kunstmuseum-wolfsburg.de

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