Exhibition
The story of the French photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894 -1986) is the story of a “discovery”.
Initially known for his activity as a painter, Lartigue began taking photographs as a child and, continuing throughout his life, first as an amateur photographer and then as a professional, he offers us an extraordinary vision of the twentieth century.
The exhibition retraces his unusual career, following his steps through the decades and focusing on the decisive events that led to the rediscovery of the artist – which only occurred in the 1960s – and his subsequent recognition as an essential figure in the world of photography. Attentive and involved in the events of the twentieth century, in his shots Lartigue always intertwines the facts of universal history with his affections and his daily life.
His gaze on human events is characterized by an extraordinary freshness and a particular lightness, not to be understood as superficiality, but as the ability to focus in his photographs on a world made of beauty, elegance, intimacy.
Lartigue always followed his signature with a small drawing of the sun: “This is why I have been taking photographs for so many years: to take advantage of these wonderful gifts of chance”.
His photography finds its deepest raison d’être in the amazement of what surrounds him. This is what his art still suggests to us who observe it, called to question ourselves not only on what his photographs can tell us about the past, but also, and above all, what they can reveal to us about the present.
Organized in collaboration with Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice and Donation Jacques Henri Lartigue in Paris, with the patronage of the Municipality of Milan, the French Consulate in Milan and the Institut Français in Milan, with support from Ricola and media partner IGP Decaux .
Photographie J. H. Lartigue © Ministère de la Culture – France / MAP-AAJHL
