Annie Leibovitz's exibition in Warsaw, photo by Bartek Syta
33 photographs - portraits of prominent women taken by one of the most well-known contemporary photographers - are presented along the gate of the Warsaw University Botanic Garden as part of the Polish Advertising Festival. The exhibition was inspired by the Leibovitz's 1995 album "Women", with an introduction by Susan Sontag
"The exhibit shows various women, of different professions, ages, some ordinary, some extraordinary, famous and unknown", says the event's coordinator Teresa Śmiechowska. The exhibit celebrates the life of the American woman at the dawn of the new millennium. It opens with a black and white portrait of the artist's mother - Marilyn Leibovitz and features more than 30 portraits of women from a broad spectrum of American society, including well-known women like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Susan Sarandon, Scarlett Johansson, Nicole Kidman and many many more.
The event comes as a second exposition of the artist in Poland. The earlier retrospective took place at the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in 1998. The artist showed many miscellaneous works, from the portraits of her family members, reportage and documentary photos (Rolling Stones' tour or the bombarded Sarajevo) to the portraits of celebrities.
The works in the current exhibition were selected by the artist herself. She was also the one who suggested the works be enlarged to 130 by 180 cm - a size in which they were never previously shown. She also chose the location for their display - out in the open rather than indoors.
Annie Leibovitz's large and distinguished body of work encompasses some of the most well-known portraits of our time. Her first major assignment was a cover story on John Lennon. She became Rolling Stone's chief photographer in 1973. By the time she left the magazine ten years later, she had shot one hundred and forty-two covers and published photo essays on scores of stories, including her memorable accounts of the resignation of Richard Nixon and the 1975 Rolling Stone's tour. In 1983, when she joined the staff of the revived Vanity Fair, she was established as the foremost rock music photographer and an astute documentarian of the social landscape. At Vanity Fair, and later at Vogue, her work with actors, directors, writers, musicians, athletes and political and business figures, as well as her fashion photographs, expanded her collective portrait of contemporary life. Leibovitz has published several books and has exhibited widely, including at the National Portrait Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the International Center of Photography in New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris; and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
The "Women" exhibition is on public view along the gate of the Warsaw University Botanic Garden (Aleje Ujazdowskie 4). It opens on Friday April 15 and will be open for the public through May 16. It was organised by the Association of Marketing Communication SAR and TLC TV channel for women as a part of the Polish Advertising Festival. It is under the honorary patronage of the United States Ambassador to Poland Lee Feinstein and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage Bogdan Zdrojewski. U.S. Embassy Warsaw is a co-sponsor.
Source: PAP, press release