ANNIE LEIBOVITZ: "A PHOTOGRAPHER’S LIFE, 1990-2005" AT THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART

Written by Hugo Zimmerman Thursday, 19 August 2010 22:07

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Corcoran Gallery of Art presents an internationally touring exhibition of works by celebrated photographer Annie Leibovitz. This special exhibition, Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990–2005 includes more than 200 photographs, featuring well-known work made on editorial assignment, as well as personal photographs of her family and close friends. "I don’t have two lives," Leibovitz says. "This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it." Sponsored by American Express, the exhibition will be on view at the Corcoran through January 13, 2008.

""This is Annie Leibovitz's most ambitious exhibition yet. By showing her personal photography along with the pictures she's made that are widely known, she's challenging herself–and her audience–to find the connections that exist between private and public life," said Paul Roth, Corcoran curator of photography and media arts.

Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005 features many of Leibovitz’s best-known portraits of public figures, including actors such as Jamie Foxx, Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt; athletes preparing for the 1996 Olympic Games; George W. Bush with members of his Cabinet at the White House; and her famous 1991 image of then-pregnant actress Demi Moore, one of the most recognizable photographs of its time.

The show also highlights images of artists and architects such as Richard Avedon, Brice Marden, Philip Johnson and Cindy Sherman. Leibovitz’s assignment work includes reportage from the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s, the election of Hillary Clinton to the U.S. Senate, and the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. The artist has photographed landscapes from the American West, the Jordanian desert and the wilds of upstate New York, and these are featured prominently.

"Throughout her career, from Rolling Stone to Vanity Fair and Vogue, Annie Leibovitz has reinvented the modern celebrity portrait, altering the way we think about the famous people who populate our cultural landscape," Roth said.

At the heart of the exhibition, Leibovitz’s personal photography documents intimate moments, work; the birth and childhood of her three daughters; and vacations, reunions and rites of passage with her parents and extended family. Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990–2005 threads together the two sides of Leibovitz’s work both chronologically and creatively, projecting a narrative of the artist’s private life against the backdrop of her public image as one of America’s best-known portrait photographers.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005 was organized by the Brooklyn Museum and debuted there in 2006 before an international tour that includes stops at the San Diego Museum of Art, Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, San Francisco’s de Young Museum, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris and London’s National Portrait Gallery. Charlotta Kotik, the Brooklyn Museum’s John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art, is the exhibition curator.

ABOUT ANNIE LEIBOVITZ

Annie Leibovitz has photographed figures from American popular culture since the early 1970s, when her work began appearing in Rolling Stone. She became the magazine’s chief photographer in 1973 and, 10 years later, began working for Vanity Fair, and then Vogue. In addition to her magazine work, Leibovitz has created influential advertising campaigns for American Express, Gap, Givenchy, the Milk Board and the television show The Sopranos. A touring retrospective of her work from the years 1970 to 1990 was presented in 1991 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. The Corcoran Gallery of Art premiered her popular traveling exhibition Women in 1999. Leibovitz is the recipient of many honors, including the rank of Commandeur in the French government’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Barnard College Medal of Distinction. She was named a Library of Congress Living Legend in 2000 and one of the 35 "Innovators of Our Time" by Smithsonian magazine in 2005.

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

An exhibition catalogue, Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005, is available for purchase in the Corcoran Shop. Published by Random House, the hardcover book is 472 pages. To buy online, visit www.corcoran.org/shop .

ABOUT THE CORCORAN

The Corcoran Gallery of Art, a privately funded institution, was founded in 1869 as Washington’s first and largest non-federal museum of art. It is known internationally for its distinguished collection of historical and modern American art as well as contemporary art, photography, European painting, sculpture and the decorative arts. Founded in 1890, the Corcoran College of Art + Design is Washington’s only four-year college of art and design offering BFA degrees in Photojournalism, Digital Media Design, Fine Art, Graphic Design and Photography; AFA degrees in Digital Media Design, Fine Art, Graphic Design and Photography; a five-year Bachelor of Fine Arts/Master of Arts in Teaching (BFA/MAT); and a two-year Master of Arts (MA) in Interior Design or History of Decorative Arts. The College’s Continuing Education program offers part-time credit and non-credit classes for children and adults and draws more than 2,500 participants each year. More information about Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005 is available at www.corcoran.org/leibovitz Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005 Organized by the Brooklyn Museum