MAGNUM Photos 60 years @ SMCS

Thomas Hoepker

Great retrospective showing 60 years of MAGNUM, the agency founded by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David Seymour in 1947 to give the photographer more say about his own images. Viewing the images throughout the exhibition, you see many of the iconic images of recent history that made this agency so ground braking. A must for all fans of photography.

 

Eyes Wide Open @ SMCS

Tjebbe Beekman, Bonus-Malus (2006)

Overview of recently acquired work. Highlights (for me): Lisa Yuskavage, Aernout Mik, Luc Tuymans, Tjebbe Beekman. Raw Footage (2006) by Aernout Mik especially, a video projection on two screens showing surplus material from news footage about the Balkan conflict. It shows the strange normality of war, men goofing to the camera while firing mortars, or men mechanically unpacking shells and arming them. All this with a mostly serene landscape as background. Super.

Aernout Mik, Raw Footage (2006)

Luc Tuymans, Rome (2007)Lisa Yuskavage, Dutch Girl (2006)

 

Ryan McGinley @ FOAM

FOAM shows a collection photographs by Ryan McGinley in their ‘Celebrating Life’ exhibition. The photographs depict his friends in a carefree holiday setting. The style is naïve, dreamy, I like the images, they bring you back to a child-like state. However, it’s a bit one-dimensional; not much depth, you can tell that McGinley does a lot of commercial work. The lack of story makes you almost resent those rich American kids in the pictures; life isn’t this simple or carefree, or is it? Larry Clark is said to have influenced Ryan McGinley; it’s evident in this series, although Clark’s work is considerably more edgy.
www.ryanmcginley.com

 

Andy Warhol / Other Voices, Other Rooms @ Stedelijk Museum

I found out that I am growing increasingly impatient with exhibitions like this. This Andy Warhol exhibition prides itself to be showing one of the most complete collections of Warhol to date, but what is the use to have to dig through piles of irrelevant notes, letters and audio fragments? The curator says it will shed light on the conceptual development of the artist, but it didn’t work for me. Not that I didn’t enjoyed myself; the almost complete collection of movies was interesting to see. It’s fascinating to see this development of fame and life as art, although no answer was given to the question what triggered Warhol in this process. In a sense it’s sobering to see yourself looking at for example a voyeuristic Warhol movie of David Bowie blabbering about some Italian designer and going to Milan to shop for clothes; it’s empty, but you will keep watching, because it’s David Bowie. The spin of being famous and this commercial art is omni-present today and Andy Warhol invented it.