A great photo exhibition is being shown at the Alinari National Museum of Photography in Florence up to January the 9th 2011.
It’s a refined journey inside the history of one of the most important and famous photo magazines, “Camera Work”, founded at the beginning of the 20th century by Alfred Stieglitz and published in New York for a small number of years from 1912 to 1917.
It is a poetic journey which plunges the visitor, either professional or amateur, into 20th century photography, when photography was gradually becoming an autonomous discipline, a form of art, in no way derivative.
Stieglitz, pioneer in the advancement of pictorial photography in America and abroad, was, beside being a photographer and a publisher, the owner of a small gallery “Gallery 291” in New York, which greatly contributed to the introduction of modern art in America. In the “International Exhibition of Modern Art”, known as “The Armory Show”, which opened in New York in February 1913, Stieglitz found his unique role and his “Gallery 291” ( just 5 square meters) became a storm centre for modernism. The Armory Show exhibited nearly 1,300 paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures from Europe and America in an astonishing survey of modern art history and trends, exhibiting artists such as Rodin, Picasso, Matisse, Braque Picabia and Cézanne. Although not directly involved with the exhibition’s organization, Stieglitz gave his support by lending works from his gallery and openly endorsing the show in the press. He also purchased several works from the exhibition, including the single painting by Kandinsky’s “The Garden of Love”, because familiar with Kandinsky’s art and theories. He, in fact, had reproduced excerpts of the artist’s seminal thesis Concerning the Spiritual in Art in a 1912 volume of Camera Work.
The Alinari National Museum of Photography is a coffer which stores jewels to be discovered.
The site is in14ar Piazza Santa Maria Novella. Opening hours 10 am – 6,30 pm. Closed on Wednesday.
These days Florence offers a lot to the visitor.
A visit to the town is recommended.
For accommodations of different types and prices have a look at www.tuscanyholidayrent.com
