LUXEMBOURG.- Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean presents the first exhibition in the Grand-Duchy dedicated to Jeff Wall. The exhibition Appearance is conceived in close collaboration with the Canadian artist and proposes, through 27 large-format photographs, an overview of his work from the end of the 1970s to today. It includes the iconic works Picture for Women (1979), The Storyteller (1986) and Restoration (1993). A large body of recent photographs is presented for the first time in a museum setting in Europe.
Jeff Wall has transformed the way we think about photography. By aligning photography with a broader pictorial tradition and considering its relations to other arts—painting, but also cinema and literature—Wall has redefined its essence and extended the field of its possibilities. Each of Wall’s “photographic tableaux,” whether the lightboxes, dating from 1978, or his more recent large-format prints, opens up a reflection on the very notion of image.
At Mudam, Wall’s carefully planned display is organised around various preoccupations that have been at the heart of his photographic oeuvre from the beginning: the construction of the image, the gaze, the gesture, the figure and the landscape, as well as speech and literature.
The exhibition catalogue includes three new essays by Jean-François Chevrier, David Campany, and Bernd Stiegler, along with an important section of images put together in close dialogue with the artist (co-published by Mudam Luxembourg, Kunsthalle Mannheim, and Edition Cantz).
An ambitious cultural programme of events accompanies the exhibition. On October 22, David Campany will give a lecture on Jeff Wall's relation to the history of photography. From October 23–31, Luxembourg's Cinémathèque presents a cycle of films curated by Jeff Wall, titled “Frames of Reference.” On November 23, an international symposium, chaired by Jean-François Chevrier is organised at Mudam Luxembourg.
The exhibition Jeff Wall . Appearance is co-organised by the Kunsthalle Mannheim and Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean.
Curators: Christophe Gallois, Clément Minighetti
