Germaine Krull (1897-1985) — A Photographer’s Journey — Jeu de Paume, Concorde — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: June 2 → September 27, 2015

Germaine Krull is at once one of the best-known figures in the history of photography, by virtue of her role in the avant-garde’s from 1920 to 1940, and a pioneer of modern photojournalism. She was also the first to publish in book form as an end in itself.

The exhibition at Jeu de Paume revisits Germaine Krull’s work in a new way, based on collections that have only recently been made available, in order to show the balance between a modernist artistic vision and an innovative role in print media, illustration and documentation. As she herself put it — paradoxically, in the introduction to her Études de nu (1930) —, ‘The true photographer is the witness of each day’s events, a reporter.’

Germaine Krull, Dans sa voiture, Monte-Carlo, Anonyme, 1937 Tirage gélatino-argentique — 13 x 18,3 cm Museum Folkwang, Essen. © Estate Germaine Krull, Museum Folkwang, Essen

If Krull is one of the most famous women photographers, her work has been little studied in comparison to that of her contemporaries Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy and André Kertész. Nor has she had many exhibitions : in 1967, a first evocation was put on at the Musée du Cinéma in Paris, then came the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, in 1977, the Musée Réattu, Arles, in 1988, and the 1999 retrospective based on the archives placed at the Folkwang Museum, Essen.

The exhibition at Jeu de Paume focuses on the Parisian period, 1926-1935, and more precisely on the years of intensive activity between 1928 and 1933, by relating 130 vintage prints to period documents, including the magazines and books in which Krull played such a unique and prominent role. This presentation gives an idea of the constants that run through her work while also bringing out her aesthetic innovations. The show features many singular but also representative images from her prolific output, putting them in their original context.