Ralph Gibson — The Somnambulist (1970-2020) — Bigaignon Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: September 10 → October 31, 2020

To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first of the three emblematic series that made Ralph Gibson’s worldwide fame in the early 1970s, Thierry Bigaignon presents a unique exhibition featuring all the images from the series The Somnambulist, and at which the latest works of the American master will be unveiled.

Fifty years after their publication, the images of The Somnambulist still take us through a journey blending dream and reality. Through them, we explore a mental territory of the in-between, where formal contrasts and visual metaphors underline the interest Ralph Gibson has always shown in images of a surrealist nature.

For this anniversary, we not only wanted to show the entire series, that is to say the 48 black and white silver gelatin prints in the same format as that of the original book, but to confront the artist’s iconic photographs with his recent production of large format digital colour prints. This dialogue between historical images and unpublished works shows just how much Ralph Gibson has always been and still is at the avant-garde!