“Chronorama is, at a time when millions of images are produced every minute and instantly shared, of definite importance in its role of transmission to this and future generations. The exhibition, presented by the Pinault Collection https://www.pinaultcollection.com/en, focuses on the prolific culture of photography in the last century, before the advent of digital technology,” says curator Matthieu Humery about Chronorama. Photographic Treasures of the 20th Century, the exhibition on view at Palazzo Grassi in Venice until January next year.
This impressive show brings together a selection of over four hundred works from between 1910 and 1979 that showcase “the women and men, the historical moments, the mundane, the dreams and the dramas of the 20th century.” These images come from the Pinault Collection’s recent acquisition of the Condé Nast archives, and some of them have never been seen before while others have been published in the group’s most famous outlets like Vogue, Vanity Fair, House & Garden, GQ, and Glamour. The artists behind these pictures contributed enormously to the visual universe that shaped the 20th Century, and among them we find Diane Arbus, Helmut Newton, Adolf de Meyer, Edward Steichen, Horst P. Horst, George Hoyningen-Huene, Lee Miller, and Irving Penn, among others.
Even though she became American Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief in 1988, Anna Wintour reflects on the Condé Nast Archives and offers her personal insight of Chronorama: “Brilliance and bravery. Those are my impressions from this tour of photographs –a history lesson in portraits that tells a story of the better part of a century through people, places, fashion, culture, and art.”
Even though she became American Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief in 1988, Anna Wintour reflects on the Condé Nast Archives and offers her personal insight of Chronorama: “Brilliance and bravery. Those are my impressions from this tour of photographs –a history lesson in portraits that tells a story of the better part of a century through people, places, fashion, culture, and art.”
DIANE & ALLAN ARBUS, Kathy Slate with doll in baby carriage, 1953, Vogue © Condé Nast
DAVID BAILEY, Mick Jagger, 1964, Vogue © Condé Nast
CECIL BEATON, Actress Marlene Dietrich, 1932, Vanity Fair © Condé Nast
JEAN HOWARD, Marlon Brando, 1951, Vogue © Condé Nast
IRVING PENN, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn lying in a field of grass, reading Gertrude Stein’s Picasso book, 1952, Vogue © Condé Nast
JACK ROBINSON, Actress and Singer Melba Moore, 1971, Vogue © Condé Nast
BERT STERN, Twiggy wearing a mod minidress by Louis Féraud and leather shoes by François Villon, 1967, Vogue © Condé Nast