Edwynn Houk Gallery

	Brassaï Photographs from the Personal Collection of Mme. Gilberte Brassaï November 11, 1999 - January 15, 2000
Fifty exceptional vintage prints from the private collection of the wife of one of the twentieth century’s foremost photographers is on view at Edwynn Houk Gallery from November 11, 1999 through January 15, 2000. Featuring images from the series Paris by Night, Secret Paris of the 30s, Paris at Day, Graffiti and Transmutations. The show coincides with the centennial retrospective currently on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and anticipates on the major retrospective at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris which opens in April 2000. Brassaï (1899 – 1984) was born Gyula Halász a century ago in the Transylvanian town of Brasso (hence Brassaï, meaning "of Brasso"). After attending art school in Berlin, Brassaï moved to Paris in 1924. He was immediately caught up by the city’s effervescent bohemian life. Supporting himself as a journalist, Brassaï took up photography in 1930, initially to illustrate his articles. His fascination for the hidden face of the city of light as it unfolds in the dark culminated in 1932 with the publication of his first book, the classic Paris de Nuit (Paris by Night). Brassaï’s subject matter was often candid. His approach however was at an opposite pole from the then emerging genre of photojournalism. The key to his art was patience and long exposures. Using makeshift and cumbersome tools - a wobbly tripod, a piece of string to measure the distance of object to camera, and the noisy, smelly bang of magnesium at a time when faster film had outdated it -Brassaï carefully composed each picture, turning his subjects into archetypes. Like his Surrealist friends, Brassaï was intent on disclosing the fantastic nature inherent in modern urban life. Brassaï never adhered to Surrealism as a dogmatic movement, but he contributed important works to the influential Surrealist publication Minotaure. His strikingly abstract pictures of graffiti were first published in Minotaure, as were his photographs of Picasso's sculptures. Closely associated with the artistic world of his time, Brassaï produced iconic portraits of Picasso, Giacometti and Henry Miller, among others. Miller, who discovered the secret side of Paris with Brassaï, dubbed the photographer "The Eye of Paris". Brassaï’s extensive bibliography comprises seventeen books, including Paris by Night, The Secret Paris of the 30s, The Artists of My Life, Graffiti, Conversations with Picasso, two portraits of Henry Miller and an essay on Marcel Proust and photography. All the pieces in this show are drawn from the personal collection of Madame Gilberte Brassaï. Brassaï tells the story of their encounter in his book Conversations with Picasso: One fine day just after the Liberation of Paris, a dazzling young woman suddenly materialized at the photographer's door step. She was sent by a magazine to pick up a photograph for reproduction. Struck by her beauty, Brassaï delivered the wrong picture. He'd just found his companion for the next forty years. This show is as much a celebration of Brassaï’s work as a homage to the woman who inspired and sustained his long and brilliant career.