fototazo: Horacio Coppola

Showing posts with label Horacio Coppola. Show all posts

9.08.2015

Argentina Notebook: Review of "From Bauhaus to Buenos Aires"

Grete Stern, Sueño No. 1: Artículos eléctricos para el hogar (Dream No. 1: Electrical Appliances for the Home), 1949
© 2015 Estate of Horacio Coppola.

Jaime Permuth, Eleonora Ronconi and I are collaborating to explore contemporary photography in Argentina. We're looking at trends and how they relate to traditions; events, institutions and venues; as well as pursuing conversations with curators, academics, gallerists and photographers on what's happening currently. This collaborative project will feature a variety of posts including interviews, book reviews, published letters, portfolios of images and more.

Jaime Permuth is a Guatemalan photographer living and working in New York City and a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts. Eleonora Ronconi is an Argentinian photographer living and working in the Bay Area, California whose work explores themes of memory, identity and uprooting.

Today we continue the series with a review of the show "From Bauhaus to Buenos Aires:
Grete Stern and Horacio Coppola at the Museum of Modern Art" by Jaime Permuth.

Other posts in this series on Argentina include Jaime Permuth's interviews with Fabián Goncalves Borrega, Jorge Piccini and Sofía López Mañán, an interview with Guillermo Srodek-Hart by myself as well as Q&A's with Karina Azaretzky, Sebastián Szyd, Gaby Messina and Marcela Magno.

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From Bauhaus to Buenos Aires: Grete Stern and Horacio Coppola

Museum of Modern Art
New York
May 17 - Oct 4, 2015

In a perfect world I would commission a tango from the likes of Piazzola or Gardel. It would be titled "From Bauhaus to Buenos Aires" and it would sing of the love and passion between the German girl and the Argentinian boy who fell in love between the world wars; who created art to compensate humanity for its needless suffering and folly; and of their triumphant return from the ashes of Europe to the greatest city on Earth (Buenos Aires, it goes without saying) on the way to inspiring a nation on the road to modernity.

That is, I would commission a song to celebrate all that which the Museum of Modern Art left out when they cast youthful lovers Grete Stein and Horacio Coppola as mere colleagues traveling on parallel artistic tracks.

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Avenida Díaz Vélez al 4800, 1936 © Estate of Horacio Coppola

Grete Stern (1904-1999) was born in Elberfeld, Germany. She was educated in graphic design and typography at the Technische Hochschule Stuttgart. In 1927, at the age of 23, the aspiring artist left her native city and moved to Berlin, the intellectual capital of central Europe, where abundant artistic and commercial opportunities were to be found. For the next five years she would become actively involved in the city's avant-garde circles and further her artistic education at the Bauhaus School under the expert guidance of Walter Peterhans. During that first year at Peterhans' studio, she met and began a life-long friendship with Ellen (Rosenberg) Auerbach. Together they opened ringl + pit, a pioneering studio specializing in portraiture and advertising. Named after their childhood nicknames - Stern was ringl; Auerbach was pit - the studio embraced both commercial and avant-garde sensibilities.

In Buenos Aires during the same period, Horacio Coppola (1906-2012) initiated his photographic and cinematic experimentations, exploring his surroundings and contributing to the discourse on modernist practices across media in cultural magazines. Even in his early work, Coppola was looking for inspiration far beyond the borders of his native country. His depictions of Buenos Aires have more in common with Russian Constructivists such as Rodchenko or American modernists like Paul Strand than with local colleagues. In 1929, Coppola founded the Buenos Aires Film Club to introduce local audiences to the best in foreign films. His interest in new modes of photographic expression led him to the Bauhaus in 1932. There he met and fell in love with Stern.

London, 1934 © Estate of Horacio Coppola

The rising tide of Nazi Germany closed the Bauhaus in 1933 and forced Stern and Coppola to flee to London. Stern arrived there first and quickly became integrated into the leftist milieu of artists and intellectuals already established in the city. She began a series of (now iconic) portraits of notable German exiles such as playwright Bertolt Brecht, actress Helene Weigel, philosopher Karl Korsch and psychoanalyst Paula Heimann among others. After traveling and photographing throughout Europe, Coppola joined her there. He embarked on a series of modernist photographs of London whose point of view oscillated between social concern and surrealist strangeness.

In the summer of 1935, Stern and Coppola married and embarked for Buenos Aires where they mounted an exhibition in the offices of the avant-garde magazine Sur, announcing the arrival of modern photography in Argentina. Coppola focused on the unique character of Buenos Aires, while Stern's created portraits of the city's intelligentsia. A year later, Coppola received a major commission to photograph Buenos Aires in the context of the celebration of the 400th anniversary of its founding. This commission was an opportunity for him to create his own modern vision of the city. It also lead to the making of his final film, The Birth of the Obelisk.

Buenos Aires, 1936 © Estate of Horacio Coppola

Throughout the 1940s, Stern went on to build an impressive collection of portraits of the city's cultural elite: playwright Amparo Alvajar; painters Antonio Berni, Gertrudis Chale, and Lino Eneas Spilimbergo; poet Mony Hermelo; and graphic designer Clement Moreau as well as the writers Pablo Neruda and Jorge Luis Borges.

The exhibition ends with Stern's "Sueños" (Dreams), a series of photomontages she created during the years 1948-1951 for the popular women's magazine Idilio, which published a weekly column "El psicoanálisis te ayudará" (Psychoanalysis Will Help You). Stern was charged with the illustrations, which portrayed women's dreams in a surrealist vein. Although there is a proto-feminist quality to these illustrations, the exact opposite is there as well: an elegant attention and regard for fashion that recalls Stern's editorial and advertising work in Europe. The best known of these photomontages is probably "Dream No. 1: Electrical Appliances for the Home" in which a beautiful woman - posed with arms upraised and a suggestive twist of the torso - serves as a base for a table lamp. A male hand reaches around to switch her on and off.

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MoMA's exhibition gathers more than 300 works from museums and private collections from across Europe and the Americas. The galleries are studded with an impressive array of photographic gems, many of which are being exhibited in the United States for the first time. As such, it is a significant and notable accomplishment.

However, as Martha Schwendener points out in her review for The New York Times, the exhibition feels like a series of his/her rooms suggesting two discrete bodies of work rather than a shared journey in life and in the arts.

Grete Stern and Horacio Coppola were not only deeply invested in their art but in each other. Their charisma drew a circle of eminent friends and colleagues to their orbit. They were essential figures of Argentinian modernism and the importance of their historic legacy is undeniable. I felt disappointed that this aspect of their story was downplayed in the curatorial narrative. Incorporating objects and ephemera from their lives might have served to better contextualize the myriad of ways in which two individuals remain bound to each other and vitally engaged with their contemporaries.

In response to my query about the impetus for and timing of this exhibition, Senior Photography Curator Roxana Marcoci responded that it stemmed out of curatorial interest in the scholarly reassessment of the pioneering work of Grete Stern and Horacio Coppola and formed part of MoMA's pan-institutional Initiative "Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives in a Global Age" (C-MAP).
"Transmissions: Art in Eastern Europe and Latin America, 1960–1980" is an upcoming major exhibition showcasing a wealth of Latin American photography (works by Oscar Bony, David Lamelas, Lea Lublin, Ana Mendieta, Liliana Porter and Miguel Angel Rojas). Co-curated by Ms. Marcoci with Stuart Comer and Christian Rattemeyer, it opens at MoMA this September.

3.24.2015

Argentina Notebook: Interview with Fabián Goncalves Borrega

Jaime Permuth, Eleonora Ronconi and I are collaborating to explore contemporary photography in Argentina. We're looking at trends and how they relate to traditions; events, institutions and venues; as well as pursuing conversations with curators, academics, gallerists and photographers on what's happening currently. This collaborative project will feature a variety of posts including interviews, book reviews, published letters, portfolios of images and more.

Jaime Permuth is a Guatemalan photographer living and working in New York City and a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts. Eleonora Ronconi is an Argentinian photographer living and working in the Bay Area, California whose work explores themes of memory, identity and uprooting.

Today we start the series with an interview with Fabián Goncalves Borrega, Curator at the Art Museum of the Americas, Washington DC, by Jaime Permuth.

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This interview is presented first in an English translation, then followed by the Spanish original.

Jaime Permuth: If we speak about photography in Argentina, is it different from speaking about photography in other regions of the continent?

Fabián Goncalves Borrega: Photography in Argentina is influenced by European artistic and aesthetic movements. Argentina had its eyes on Europe as a source of inspiration for a long time. With the arrival of big names in photography like the portraitist Anatol Saderman, who arrived in Argentina from his native Russia in 1930 and who was known for his calm portraits lit by only one source of light; Alejandro Wolk, Russian portraitist whose portraits were more intense, close to the subject with almost 3D-like features; and Nicolas Shonfeld, a Hungarian portraitist. On the other hand, we had the rich local Argentinian families who sent their children to study in Europe, as is the case with the well-known photographer Horacio Coppola. This exchange with the old world definitely helped to define Argentinian photography with a modern, surrealist and conceptual accent. These characteristics are what makes Argentina different from the rest of the region.

JP: What are some of the artistic/historic influences in the development of the photographic tradition in Argentina?

FGB: The evolution of photography in Argentina was closely linked to the development of farming towards the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. Buenos Aires was a city that was visited by a lot of traveling daguerreotypists who started the tradition of portraits for the affluent middle class in the country. This tradition would continue with the opening of photographic studios like the one owned by Alejandro S. Witcomb. This was followed by a trend of native photographers documenting their city and the countryside, like Antonio Pozzo, the arrival of Italian Benito Panunzi to the country and the postcards with touristic landmarks by the Englishman Samuel Boote. Towards the middle of the 20th century, some artists who had studied in the Bauhaus, like Gret Stern and Horacio Coppola came back to the country, taking fine art to the top. As Sara Facio explains in her book Photography in Argentina (page 82): "Just like Grete Stern, artistically trained in the previous creation of the image, Coppola strolls around the city (Buenos Aires) looking for corners, a play of lights and shadows, night and day, so special for that environment that reflects a vision of enormous aesthetic appeal." There is a clear influence in art schools on photography. Both photographers never grew apart from that artistic influence; they were always close to the artistic movements of the time. Artists and intellectuals of the time would always gather at Grete Stern's home in Ramos Mejía. On November 2nd 1945, artists gathered to create the Concrete-Invention Art Movement. Their portrait work is direct, it uses natural light with no retouching, capturing the personality of the portrait sitter. Coppola's work, as Sara Facio described, "is linked to the collective memory of the 40s, especially the rich and mysterious night visits or small details that become symbols of the city of Buenos Aires." He later experiments with color photography, video and abstraction.

JP: In your opinion, are there any distinctive features of the medium that are specific to this country?

FGB: Artistic photography in Argentina, including portraiture, is the foundation of other forms, such as photojournalism with the appearance of magazines like Caras y Caretas at the beginning of the 20th century and specialized media in the mid-century. Later, it would move on to the photographic essay with man and its environment as the main subject. Towards the end of last century and beginning of the 21st century, essays continue to be predominant as a means of expression, but the main subject gets fragmented into many, giving creativity a push into many different directions.

JP: Who are some of the outstanding photographers who came to Argentina from abroad?

FGB: Just to mention two examples, Annemarie Heinrich and Juan Di Sandro: both arrived with their families to settle in Argentina when they were 12 years old, in 1924 and 1910 respectively. They both became exponents of Argentinian photography and they illustrate the impact of immigrant families.

JP: How can we see the local development of the medium in relation to the strong European immigration in the first half of the 20th century?

FGB: This influence has arrived to our coasts in waves, depending on the social-political changes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. To be able to understand photography we have to go back to the beginning of the 20th century with the settlement of various colonies by European immigrants. This immigration, combined with the local talent like Francisco Ayerza, author of a typography of pampas inhabitants, and Alejo Grellau, Hiram Calógero and Pablo Caldarela, representatives of the pictorial current and artistic photography associated with Fine Arts. Then the rich affluent families who sent their children to study in Europe and later return to the country, like Coppola who traveled to Europe and was educated in the Bauhaus where he met photographer Grete Stern and then returned to Argentina with her. These three elements create a positive synergy that contributed to the development of photography. With the later industrialization of the country in the middle of the 20th century, the middle class is born, which, influenced by these aesthetic trends, consume newspapers, fashion magazines, movies, theater, literature and products made in the country. This demand generates a market for these photographers to thrive, create a following and a lot of them have the chance to exhibit in Europe. If we add the birth of the American magazine LIFE, which influences graphic media on how and what space photographs should be given and encourages the creation of more magazines and new sections dedicated to photography in newspapers with the largest circulation. They generate a demand of images for these publications and it leads to the full development of photojournalism with names such as Emilio Abras, Eduardo Colombo, Ricardo Alfieri, Jorge Aguirre and Eduardo Comaseña.

In the 60s Sara Facio and Alicia D'Amico opened their studios and they introduced the photographic essay to the country, which took the essay to a whole new level in photography. The work of followers like Andy Goldstein and Adriana Lestido are also standouts.

JP: We can also talk about the economic crisis in Argentina and its own artistic diaspora. Who are the most important examples? How are they accepted and understood in their country of origin?

FGB: Argentina went through crisis after crisis; with the military coup in 1976, the biggest and most significant exodus of intellectuals in the history of the country takes place, and among them, is photographer Humberto Rivas, educated at Di Tela Institute. He settles in Barcelona and has an important career within the Spanish contemporary photography scene. His work is direct and suggestive, and ranges from portraits to urban landscapes. With the comeback of democracy in 1983, many of the exiles return home. Eventually, the recurrent economic crisis and the need to find new horizons have pushed photographers to leave the country. Raul E. Stolkiner was born in the city of Cordoba in 1957, starts photography in 1975, and migrates to Mexico where he takes workshops at Casa del Lago and UNAM. In 1984 he returns to Argentina. His work is very complex, elaborate and full of metaphors. Another great artist from the same generation is Marcos Lopez who was born in Santa Fe in 1958. Lopez starts with black and white portraits, which represent his province of origin. Later on, he searches for a color or colors that explore the underdevelopment in the south of Argentina with a touch of humor and social critique. Lastly, Daniel Michiut's work is also remarkable. He was born in 1967, in Chivilcoy, Buenos Aires province. He photographs people of the rural areas and we can see them in his photo essay "Vida de Perros e Historias de Bares."

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Jaime Permuth: Hablar de fotografía en Argentina es distinto de hablar de fotografía en otras regiones del continente?

Fabián Goncalves Borrega: La fotografía en la Argentina esta influenciada por los movimientos artísticos y estéticos europeos. Argentina tuvo los ojos puestos en Europa como fuente de inspiración por mucho tiempo. Con la llegada de grandes personalidades de la fotografía como el retratista Anatol Saderman que llega a la argentina de su Rusia natal en 1930, conocido por sus retratos calmos e iluminados por una sola fuente de luz. Alejandro Wolk fotógrafo retratista ruso de retratos es mas intenso, cercano al sujeto casi de características tridimensionales. Y Nicolas Shonfeld otro retratista de origen húngaro. Y al mismo tiempo las familias patricias de argentina que enviaban a sus hijos a estudiar a Europa como es el caso del destacado fotógrafo Horacio Coppola. Este intercambio contacto con el viejo continente definitivamente ayudan a definir la fotografía argentina con un acento modernista, surrealista y conceptual. En relación a otras regiones estas mismas características hacen distinta a la Argentina.

JP: Cuales son algunas de las influencias artisticas/historicas en el desarrollo de la tradición fotográfica argentina?

FGB: El desarrollo de fotografía en Argentina estuvo vinculado al desarrollo agropecuario de fines del siglo XIX y principio del siglo XX. Buenos Aires fue una ciudad visitada por los daguerrotipistas viajeros que establecen en el país la tradición del retrato en la burguesía porteña. Esta tradición continuara con el establecimiento de estudios fotográfico como el de Alejandro S. Witcomb. Seguido con el nacimiento de los fotógrafos nativos que documentarian su ciudad y su campo como Antonio Pozzo la llegada al país del Italiano Benito Panunzi y las postales de lugares turísticos del inglés Samuel Boote. Luego ya entrado el siglo XX con la llegada y regreso de artistas formados en el Bauhaus como Grete Stern y Horacio Coppola la fotografía artística llegara a su desarrollo máximo. Como la explica Sara Facio en su libro I (pg.82): "Al igual que Grete Stern, educado visualmente en la creación previa de la imagen, Coppola pasea por la ciudad (Buenos Aires) buscando rincones, juegos de luces diurnas y nocturnas para ese especial clima que refleja en una visión de enorme atractivo plástico." Hay una clara influencia de las escuelas de arte en la fotografía. Ambos fotógrafos nunca se separaron la influencia artística, estuvieron logados a los movimientos artísticos del momento. En la casa de Grete Stern de Ramos Mejía se reunían artistas e intelectuales de la época. Incluso en Noviembre 2 de 1945 se reunieron los artistas provenientes del Movimiento Arte Concreto-Invención. Su trabajo de retrato es directo, usa la luz natural, sin retoque, captando la personalidad del retratado. El trabajo de Coppola como lo describe Sara Facio "Esta ligado a la memoria colectiva de los años 40 en especial vistas nocturnas densas y misteriosas o pequeños detalles que se convierten en símbolos de la ciudad de Buenos Aires". Luego experimenta con la fotografía color, el video y llegando hasta la abstracción.

JP: En tu opinión existen particularidades del medio que sean propias de este país?

FGB: La fotografía artística incluyendo el retrato en la Argentina es la vertiente de desarrollo de otras formas como fotografía periodística con el surgimiento de revistas como Caras y Caretas a principios del siglo XX y medios especializados a mediados del mismo siglo. Luego mutara hacia el ensayo fotográfico con el ser humano en su medio como centro. Hacia fines del siglo pasado y principios del XXI el vehículo del ensayo sigue pero temáticamente se atomiza dando pie a la creatividad en todas las direcciones.

JP: Quienes son algunos de los fotógrafos y fotógrafas notables en Argentina provenientes de otras tierras?

FGB: Por citar dos ejemplos Annemarie Heinrich y Juan Di Sandro llegan ambos a los 12 años junto con sus familias a establecerse en Argentina 1924 y en 1910 respectivamente. Ambos llegaran a ser exponentes de la fotografía argentina e ilustran el impacto de las familias de inmigrantes.

JP: Como podríamos ver el desarrollo local del medio vis-a-vis la fuerte inmigración Europea en la primera mitad del siglo XX?

FGB: Estas influencia han llegado a nuestras costas en oleadas dependiendo de los cambios socio políticos a ambos lados del Atlántico. Para entender el desarrollo de la fotografía hay que remontarse a principios de siglo XX con el establecimiento en el país de distintas colonias de inmigrantes europeos. Esto combinado con el talento local como Francisco Ayerza autor de las tipografía de los habitantes de la pampas, Alejo Grellau, Hiram Calógero, Pablo Caldarela representantes de la corrientes pictoralista y la fotografía artística asociados a las bellas arte. Sumado a la capacidad de las familias patricias argentinas de enviar a sus hijos a estudiar a Europa y volver a establecerse en su país. Como Horacio Coppola que viajó a Europa se forma en al Bauhaus donde conoce a la fotógrafa Grete Stern y regresa a la argentina con ella. Estas tres vertientes crean una sinergia positiva que favorece el desarrollo de la fotografía. Con la consecuente industrialización del país a mediados de siglo XX se genera la clase media que influenciada por estas corrientes estéticas del momento consume diarios, revistas moda, cine, teatro, literatura y productos de industrias nacionales. Esta demanda genera un mercado para que estos fotógrafos prosperen, hagan escuela y muchos de ellos llegan a tener exhibiciones en el viejo continente. Si a esto le sumamos la aparición de la revista norteamericana Life que influencia a los medios gráficos de cómo y que espacio darles a las fotografías y fomenta la creación de revistas y suplementos en los diarios de mayor circulación dedicadas a la fotografía. Crean un clima de de demanda de imágenes para esas publicaciones. Y lleva al pleno desarrollo del foto periodismo con nombres como Emilio Abras, Eduardo Colombo, Ricardo Alfieri, Jorge Aguirre y Eduardo Comesaña.

En los años ’60 abren su estudio Sara Facio y Alicia de D’Amico que introducen en la argentina el ensayo fotográfico que lleva al fotografía a una nueva altura de pureza en este estilo. También se destacan los trabajos de los forofos Andy Goldstein y Adriana Lestido.

JP: Por extensión podríamos también hablar de la crisis económica de la Argentina y de su propia diáspora artística. Cuales son algunas de sus mayores figuras? Como se les comprende y acepta en su país natal?

FGB: La Argentina a vivido una crisis después de otra, con la llegada de los militares al gobierno en 1976 se produce una de las salidas mas importantes de intelectuales de la historia dentro de ellos sale del país el fotógrafo Humberto Rivas formado en el instituto Di Tela. Se establece en Barcelona y llega a tener una destacada carrera dentro de la fotografía contemporánea en España, su trabajo se caracteriza por ser directo y sugestivo, abarca desde el retrato al paisaje urbano. Tras el regreso de la democracia en 1983 muchos de los exiliados retornan. Eventualmente, las recurrentes crisis económicas y la necesidad de buscar nuevos horizontes han provocado la salida fotógrafos y fotógrafas. Raul E. Stolkiner nace en la ciudad de Córdoba 1957, empieza con la fotografía en 1975 y se exilia en Mexico donde toma clases en los talleres Casa del Lago y en la UNAM. En 1984 regresa a la Argentina, Con un trabajo complejo muy elaborado lleno de metáforas. Otro gran artista de la misma generación es Marcos López, quién nace en Santa Fe en 1958. López empieza con el retrato en blanco y negro siempre hablando desde su lugar de origen la provincia. Lego busca en la fotografía un color o colores que identifiquen a la Argentina al sur y al subdesarrollo, con un toque de humor y critica social. Por ultimo es remarcable el trabajo de Daniel Michiut 1967, que desde Chivilcoi provincia de Buenos Aires nos trae vistas de los habitantes de las áreas rurales en sus ensayos fotográficos Vida de Perros e Historias de Bares.