BILL BRANDT 2 The Museum of Modern Art, New York BILL BRANDT SHADOW & LIGHT Sarah Hermanson Meister 5 Published in conjunction with the Published by The Museum of Front cover: Belgravia, London, 1951. exhibition Bill Brandt: Shadow and Light, Modern Art, New York Gelatin silver print, 9 ¼ x 7 ½" (23.5 x Director’s Foreword ............................. 6 1 LoNDON IN THE THIRTIes ........ 32 List of Plates .........................................182 at The Museum of Modern Art, New 11 West 53 Street 19.1 cm). Collection David Dechman York (March 6–August 12, 2013), New York, NY 10019 and Michel Mercure Glenn D. Lowry organized by Sarah Hermanson Meister, www.moma.org (see page 150) 2 NORTHERN ENGLAND .............. 70 Curator, Department of Photography. “No Rules”: An Illustrated .....................186 © 2013 The Museum of Modern Art, Back cover: Henry Moore, 1960. Gelatin Acknowledgments ................................ 8 Glossary of Bill Brandt’s Major support for the exhibition is New York silver print, 9 ⅛ x 7 ¹³⁄16" (23.1 x 19.8 cm). provided by GRoW Annenberg/ The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sarah Hermanson Meister 3 WORLD WAR II ............................84 Retouching Techniques Annenberg Foundation, The Robert All works by Bill Brandt are © 2013 Gift of Edwynn Houk Mapplethorpe Foundation, Heidi and Bill Brandt Archive Ltd. Copyright (see page 118) Lee Ann Daffner Richard Rieger, Ronit and William credits for certain illustrations are cited .............................. 10 4 PORTRAITS ................................. 108 Berkman, and by Peter Schub, in honor in the photograph credits on page 207. Endpapers: Detail of Cuckmere River, Shadow and Light: of Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz. Research All rights reserved. Sussex, 1963 The Life and Art of Bill Brandt Bill Brandt’s Published ........................ 194 and travel support provided by The (see page 143) International Council of The Museum Library of Congress Control Number: Sarah Hermanson Meister 5 LANDSCApes ............................. 130 Photo-Stories, 1939–1945 of Modern Art. 2012950724 Frontispiece: Bill Brandt. Hungary, c. 1930. Gelatin silver print, 10 ⁵⁄16 x Sarah Hermanson Meister and ISBN: 978-0-87070-845-9 8 ⅜" (26.2 x 21.2 cm). The Museum of Additional generous funding for this 6 NUDes ......................................... 144 Marley Blue Lewis publication was provided by the Modern Art, New York. Acquired John Szarkowski Publications Fund. through the generosity of Ronald A. Kurtz Distributed in the United States and Produced by the Department of Selected Exhibition History ................ 204 Canada by ARTbooK | D.A.P. Publications, The Museum of 155 Sixth Avenue, 2nd Floor Modern Art, New York New York, NY 10013 Selected Bibliography ......................... 206 Edited by Jason Best www.artbook.com Designed by Beverly Joel, pulp, ink. Distributed outside the United States Production by Matthew Pimm and Canada by Thames & Hudson Ltd. Trustees of The Museum of ................. 208 181 High Holborn Printing and binding by NINO Druck London WC1V 7QX Modern Art and Members GmBH, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, www.thamesandhudson.com of the Committee on Photography Germany Tritone separations by Martin Senn Printed in Germany This book is typeset in Erato and Johnston ITC. The paper is 150gsm Magno Satin. Table of Contents 6 7 The Museum of Modern Art is proud to retrospective organized by John Szarkowski embrace, concurrent with the publication Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the Museum’s to the future and to the critical role of present this major reconsideration of the at the Museum in 1969 to present the of Brandt’s collection, Perspective of Nudes. founding director, had a vision for the photography within the visual culture of work of Bill Brandt, the artist who defined various aspects of Brandt’s career as the By the next year when John institution that would “expand beyond the the twenty-first century, the Museum is the potential of photographic modernism sum of a single oeuvre, the singular Szarkowski succeeded Steichen in the narrow limits of painting and sculpture,” equally and actively committed to a deeper in England for much of the twentieth product of one artist’s dynamic fifty-year Department of Photography, the Museum encompassing modern art in all media, understanding of key figures in photog- century and whose remarkably broad engagement with the photo graphic owned fourteen Brandt photographs: four and not long after opening its doors in raphy’s history, exemplified by this oeuvre endures as a landmark in the medium. The fresh scholarship produced landscapes acquired in 1959 and ten nudes November 1929, the Museum was col- reconsideration of the work of Bill Brandt. history of the medium. Brandt achieved by Sarah Meister, Curator in the Depart- following the 1961 exhibition. A few more lecting and exhibiting film, photog raphy, On behalf of the staff and trustees early acclaim for his characterizations of ment of Photog raphy, has resulted in a trickled in, and MoMA purchased forty architecture, and industrial design, of the Museum, I would especially like to the British social structure and life in more nuanced and coherent path by which of the 125 prints made by Brandt for his highlighting the connections among them thank Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, London in the 1930s; three decades later, one can follow the trajectory of Brandt’s 1969 retrospective (for $25 each). Until in a way that would find echoes in Brandt’s Peter Schub, The Robert Mapplethorpe he would publish the fruits of an extended development as an artist, particularly recently, these prints—the vast majority of work. Like many contemporary artists, Foundation, Heidi and Richard Rieger, and investigation that yielded some of the most during the transforma tive period which were printed decades after the Brandt drew inspiration from (and, in turn, Ronit and William Berkman for their striking and inventive studies of the female coinciding with the Second World War, original negatives—formed the core of inspired) an artistic milieu broader than generous support of the exhibition, as well nude ever produced. In the intervening and her attentive consideration of the MoMA’s Brandt collection. Recognizing the medium with which he chose to create. as TheI nternational Council of The years, Brandt trained his lens on a variety dramatic evolution of Brandt’s printing the fundamental significance of Brandt’s His close attention to the cinema tography Museum of Modern Art for its research of subjects, ranging from the Depression- style stands as an indispensable resource achievement to the history of twentieth- of Gregg Toland in Citizen Kane had a and travel support. The John Szarkowski stricken industrial towns of Northern for future assessments of Brandt’s art. century photography, the Museum profound effect on the way in which he Publications Fund has made this book England to portraits of some of the leading It is fitting that this important identified Brandt’s work as a strategic approached his early nudes, for example, possible, and I would also like to thank the literary figures in Britain of the time, examination would take place at MoMA, priority for acquisition in 2006, and since and the anatomical distortions in the Committee of Photography and the many working both by his own inclination and as the Museum’s relationship with Brandt then MoMA has acquired seventy vintage sculptural forms of Henry Moore resonate other enthusiastic and dedicated friends on assignment for several of the most dates back to when the Department of prints, which have allowed for a more strongly with the extreme and unfamiliar of the Department of Photography whose widely read illustrated magazines of his Photography was less than a year old and comprehensive understanding of the perspectives of the photog rapher’s late contributions fittingly established this day. A number of his images of the the artist was not yet forty, when MoMA radical transformations of the artist and his nudes. Brandt’s achievement had a fund in honor of John Szarkowski. Blackout in London and the impact of the first exhibited Brandt’s photographs in the technique. Peter Galassi, then Chief sig ni ficant impact on artists as disparate as Blitz on the city’s residents during World exhibition Britain at War in 1941 (the work Curator in the Department of Photography, Ansel Adams, Robert Frank, R. B. Kitaj, War II remain iconic. itself was unattributed, a practice that was the first to articulate this need, and his and David Hockney, a fact to which they Even as many of Brandt’s photo- was not uncommon at the time). Several enthusiasm was matched, and occasionally attest in their writings. A quick perusal of graphs became instantly recognizable and years later, Edward Steichen, the newly surpassed, by the efforts of Sarah Meister his bibliography suggests how the the photographer himself (a natural-born appointed Director of the Department of and David Dechman, a longtime Brandt luminaries of twentieth-century British German) acquired enormous popularity in Photography, presented a cross-section enthusiast and a Member of the Board of literature felt compelled to comment on his adopted country and abroad, critical of Brandt’s work to date within Four Trustees and the Museum’s Committee Brandt’s work, which itself drew appraisals of Brandt have often been Photographers (1948). Steichen would go on Photography, who was instrumental in inspiration from theirs. confounded by one of the very aspects that on to include four photographs by Brandt this initiative. This exhibition and With the appointment of Quentin made his career so unique: its impressive in his landmark exhibition The Family of catalogue reflect the culmination of that Bajac, who will become Chief Curator of breadth. Brandt ranged widely; he had Man, which opened at MoMA in 1955 and effort, which has not only more than the Department of Photography in January neither a signature subject nor printing subsequently circulated to thirty-seven doubled the number of Brandt prints in 2013, the Museum will begin a new chapter style.