Richard Avedon. Murals and Portraits

Richard Avedon (1923-2004) is considered one of the most important and influential fashion photographers of the second half of the 20th century. This sufficiently well-known section of his œuvre, however, does not form part of the present project at the Museum Brandhorst. The images selected for this focus on a different aspect of his work. Politically enlightened and liberally minded, Avedon made four large photographic murals between 1969 and 1971 in the face of the social and political upheaval and change in the USA. They are of exceptional importance in the history of this medium. Three of these four works by Avedon are being shown in the Museum Brandhorst. The murals will be complemented by three other groups of work, comprising a selection of striking portraits made from the ’50s onwards. The broad spectrum of sitters ranges from Francis Bacon and Brigitte Bardot to Samuel Beckett, Truman Capote, Marcel Duchamp and Bob Dylan, as well as to Buster Keaton, Marilyn Monroe and Ezra Pound. There is a special reason why the Museum Brandhorst is staging this project. This is the first time that these works by Avedon belonging to the Udo and Anette Brandhorst Foundation are to be shown to the public. Apart from the mural ‘The Mission Council’, the new acquisition encompasses more than thirty portraits and photos from the ‘In The American West’ series. A few loans from private collections are also to be shown, while a considerable number of works comes from the Richard Avedon Foundation, New York.