Cruel + Tender
The real in the twentieth century photograph
Tate Modern: Exhibition
5 June – 7 September 2003
‘Tender cruelty’ is how the writer Lincoln Kirstein described the work of American photographer Walker Evans in the 1930s. Evans’s images were spare and factual, but his interest in the subject matter was always evident. Evans, along with German photographer August Sander, provides the historical axes for this exhibition, which explores the realist tradition within twentieth-century photography. The photographers chosen are united by this sense of ‘tender cruelty’, an oscillation between engagement and estrangement in their work. The result is a type of photographic realism that avoids nostalgia, romanticism, or sentimentality in favour of clear-eyed observation.
Besides sharing a realist style, the photographers in Cruel and Tender take a similar approach to their subject matter, however diverse its nature. Rather than the dramatised scenarios of some types of photo-journalism, the tendency in Cruel and Tender is towards the quiet documentation of overlooked aspects of our world, whether architecture, objects, places or people. In the words of Philip-Lorca diCorcia, it is an ambition to record ‘that which was never really hidden, but rarely is noticed.’
Rather than being arranged chronologically, the exhibition begins and ends with living photographers, while encouraging interconnections between the historical and the contemporary. Works are grouped into sympathetic clusters, allowing comparisons and juxtapositions. Some of the themes linking these bodies of work are explored on this site, under artists.
Though photography has been included in a number of previous exhibitions at Tate, and regularly features in its Collections displays, this is the first major exhibition dedicated purely to the medium. As such, it signals Tate’s acknowledgement that photography is a key component of contemporary visual culture and now regularly features in the programme of the museum.
An exhibition by Tate Modern, London and Museum Ludwig, Koln, curated by Emma Dexter and Thomas Weski
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/cruel-tender
◇ Cruel and Tender teachers' pack - Tate
http://www.tate.org.uk/download/file/fid/6437
◇ Cruel and Tender – Photography and the Real - e-flux
Museum Ludwig, Cologne Cruel and Tender – Photography and the Real December 6, 2003 – February 18, 2004 contact: Annegret Buchholtz, Press officer Bischofsgartenstrasse 1, 50667 Koln Telefon 0221 – 221 – 23491 Telefax 0221 – 221 – 24114 buchholtz@museum-ludwig.de http://www.museum-ludwig.de image: William Eggleston, Untitled (Boy in Red Cardigan), 1971, Dye-transfer print, 323 x 450 mm; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Siemens artsprogram, Dauerleihgabe der Siemens Aktiengesellschaft; copyright 2003 The Eggleston Artistic Trust The exhibition takes an in-depth look at the type of photography which aims to present unvarnished reality. The works selected are characterized by their factual way of representing reality, with the artist keeping a seemingly low profile. A closer look, however, clearly reveals a subjective, individual approach and a keen interest in the objects depicted. The exhibition title “Cruel and Tender” highlights the paradox of detachment and commitment. It goes back to a statement by Lincoln Kirstein, an art and literature scholar, who characterized the works of the American photographer Walker Evans using the expression “tender cruelty”. The tension between objective description and subjective interest in the object becomes apparent in works which are completely different in character such as August Sander’s major portrait project “people in the 20th century” and Boris Michailov’s contemporary works depicting the predicament of the homeless and deprived in the former Soviet Union. This major exhibition will present works by more than twenty photographers whose photographs depict reality and who have been trend-setters in this field. The exhibition will present comprehensive groups of works by Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Rineke Dijkstra, William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Paul Graham, Andreas Gursky, Boris Michailov, Nicholas Nixon, Martin Parr, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Thomas Ruff, August Sander, Michael Schmidt, Fazal Sheikh, Stephen Shore, Thomas Struth and Garry Winogrand. The photographer’s unemotional and cold, yet sympathetic view of the objects depicted, which is the central theme of this exhibition, pre-supposes a detailed and objective description. Thus, formalistic, surrealist and romantic photographic trends are excluded right from the outset. This kind of photography creates pictures about objects, not pictures with objects. “Cruel and Tender – Photography and the Real” is not arranged in a chronological order, but creates a dialogue of individual positions. This dialogue takes place at different places and times and will reveal differences and affinities in the realistic photography of the 20th century. The exhibition “Cruel and Tender – Photography and the Real” – is being created in a joint venture by the Museum Ludwig and the Tate Modern. It is being designed by Emma Dexter, senior curator at the Tate Modern and by Thomas Weski, senior curator at the Museum Ludwig. For the Tate Modern this first major exhibition of photography, which had nearly 100.000 visitors in London, signals a successful start in the dealing with photography. It will provide the Museum Ludwig, which has a comprehensive, but heterogeneous photographic collection, with the opportunity to review the role of photography in the context of a collection of 20th century and contemporary art. The exhibition reflects in the area of photography the structure of this collection with its focal point of an artistic dialog between Europe and the USA. The exhibition in the Museum Ludwig is supported by the German Savings Banks Association. A comprehensive exhibition catalogue will be published by Hatje Cantz with essays by David Campany, Emma Dexter, Susanne Lange and Thomas Weski, 210 illustrations, 287 pages.
http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/cruel-and-tender-photography-and-the-real/
