Portraits. Fundación MAPFRE photography collection

Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, Harry Callahan, Joan Colom, Dayanita Singh, Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, Alberto García-Alix, Cristina García Rodero, Emmet Gowin, John Gutmann, Jitka Hanzlová, Graciela Iturbide, Richard Learoyd, Helen Levitt, Anna Malagrida,  Fernando Maquieira, Lisette Model, Robert Frank, Fazal Sheikh, Paul Strand and Garry Winogrand are the photographers chosen to shape this portrait profile in photography of the 20th century.

The exhibition is arranged in three major parts: “Cities”, “Communities” and “Artists and models”. Through them, we shall travel in time and to the place, to recognize influences and to indicate significant parallelisms between artists from 1916 to 2013. We shall find authors who are a benchmark in the history of photography, and also those less familiar, but all sharing a particular view on the central theme of the exhibition.

It has been attempted to favor the collective vitality of the whole group, above individual achievements, however outstanding or influential some of them may be.  We intend to give a view that helps to understand the complexity and wealth of the portrait in contemporary photography, and hence perceive and appreciate the immense creative ability of the artists represented here.

The selection presented contemplates a wider view of the portrait. There are examples of the formal, prearranged studio portrait, which is the most widely recognized, such as portraits by Jitka Hanzlová. but other different modalities are also included: Fleeting street portraits,  in which the characters portrayed are unaware of the camera (Helen Levitt, Harry Callahan); the  urban portrait by Diane Arbus; portraits that give visibility to an entire community, like those by Paul Strand; committed portraits with a heavy social burden, such as those by Fazal Sheik,  intimate and family portraits by Emmet Gowin; ironic self-portraits by Friedlander or Graciela Iturbide, which reflect their obsessions.