Consuelo Kanaga. Catch the Spirit

Consuelo Kanaga: Catch the Spirit covers six decades of work by this fundamental artist in the history of modern photography, “ahead of her time”, as her friend the photographer Dorothea Lange evoked, and whose work is still amazingly little known.

An unconventional personality, deeply committed to social justice, Kanaga (1894-1978) managed to become a professional photojournalist as early as the 1910s. She was also one of the few women to maintain a close relationship with American avant-garde circles, both in San Francisco, with the f.64 Group, and in New York, with the Photo League. In these contexts, her friendship and professional support opened the way for other important women photographers of those years, such as, among others, Imogen Cunningham and Dorothea Lange. However, gender inequalities and social conventions limited her ability to devote herself fully to artistic work.

The exhibition organized around the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, which preserves his archive, features nearly 180 photographs (mostly vintage prints) and a variety of documentary material. While tracing and contextualizing Kanaga’s work and presenting some of his iconic images, it also focuses on the role of photography in the representation of the African-American world.

Curator: Drew Sawyer

Exhibition organised by the Brooklyn Museum in New York in collaboration with Fundación MAPFRE and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.