For the first time, the Museum of Pont-Aven and the Fine Arts Museum of Quimper join forces to present an unprecedented exhibition on Vivian Maier in Brittany, in two locations, with nearly 250 photos.
Vivian Maier (1926-2009) of French and Austro-Hungarian origin, was born in New York. In her youth, she stayed several times in France. It was at the age of 25 that she became a nanny in New York, then in Chicago until 1990. She died in poverty and loneliness in the spring of 2009.
Her photographic corpus was discovered at the end of 2007 by John Maloof, a real estate agent who then detected the qualities of the artist, who had remained anonymous all her life. Little by little, an incredibly rich and original body of work is revealed, made up of more than 120,000 photographic images, super 8 and 16 mm films, various recordings, scattered photographs and an impressive quantity of undeveloped film.
Since the distribution of her photos and films, about ten years ago, Vivian Maier has become one of the greatest photographers of “street photography” in the same way as Diane Arbus, Robert Frank or even Helen Levitt or Garry Winogrand.
Homogeneous and structured, Vivian Maier’s work revolves around recurring themes that she explores at leisure.
At the heart of her original preoccupations, the street scenes of New York and then of Chicago, the working-class neighborhoods abound in the work of Vivian Maier: they can be discovered at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Quimper.
In a fraction of a second, she immortalizes snapshots of the life of complete strangers, of anonymous people with whom she shares a common destiny and humanity. Gestures, details, a look, a situation, nothing escapes his Rolleiflex which allows him to remain discreet. The world of childhood, whose subjects abound, inspires him and impregnates his gaze.
At Pont-Aven, the self-portrait, a real leitmotiv for Vivian Maier and never explored in France in its entirety, is in the spotlight, the embodiment of the desperate quest for one’s own identity. Duplicating itself, it subtly mixes games of shadows and mirrors, reflection(s) on itself, handling angles, details, light and framing with great skill. These self-portraits raise questions: aren’t they a way for her to express her relationship to the world, to stage herself while remaining enigmatic? Reduced to a form of invisibility, even social negation, she tries despite everything to keep track of her existence in a world unsuited to her person… or the reverse.
Declined in multiple variations and typologies, his self-portraits form a language in itself, a complex codification integrated into his overall work. Six completely new self-portraits specifically chosen by Anne Morin, scientific curator of the exhibition, are presented at the Musée de Pont-Aven.
Black and white in its beginnings, its photographic practice integrates the color from the sixties conferring a very innovative character to its work.
Curious and eager for new means of expression, she tries her hand at the cinema, with her super 8 or 16 mm camera. Vivian Maier fixes the circulation of her gaze in space thanks to the camera, in search of a framing or a photographic scene.
Vivian Maier
Is/And His Double ~ At the Pont-Aven Museum
New York/Chicago ~ At the Museum of Fine Arts in Quimper
From February 4 To May 29, 2022
Museum of Pont-Aven
Place Julia
29930 PONT-AVEN
02 98 06 14 43
www.museepontaven.fr
Fine Arts Museum of Quimper
Place Saint-Corentin
29000 QUIMPER
02 98 95 45 20
www.mbaq.fr
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