Lartigue - Kertész. The great photography of the twentieth century

Lartigue - Kertész. The great photography of the twentieth century
from 23 November 2024 to 6 April 2025 - Villa Mussolini

Riccione's extraordinary cultural season continues in autumn and until spring of next year, when Villa Mussolini will host the Italian premiere of two masters of world photography: Jacques Henri Lartigue and André Kertész , one considered the master of the snapshot, the other the great interpreter of the most reflective photography.

The extraordinary exhibition in Riccione, composed of over 124 black and white photographs , brings together in a single exhibition the most famous images of two of the greatest masters of twentieth-century photography.

Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894 - 1986) and André Kertész (1894 - 1985) were born in the same year at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. They may have met in Paris between the wars, but their first meeting did not occur until 1972, in New York.
They exhibited at MoMA in 1963 and 1964 respectively, where one was described as a primitive amateur and the other as the inventor of photojournalism.
Both pioneers of modern photography, they left works with a singular aesthetic. These exhibitions were a crucial moment that marked the beginning of international and institutional recognition for Lartigue and rediscovery for Kertész, after two more silent decades. The two exhibitions also contributed to affirming the style of the two photographers in the first half of the 20th century, identifying them as precursors of visual modernity.

Lartigue is considered a master of the snapshot , Kertész a master of reflective photography . Lartigue and Kertész never took the easiest path to recognition. They constructed their works with maximum freedom, far from the great artistic movements. Starting in the 1970s, these two independent personalities were regarded as unschooled models. Placing their photographs in parallel allows us to show both their convergences and their divergences in life and points of view.

The exhibition, curated by Marion Perceval and Matthieu Rivallin, is promoted by the Municipality of Riccione and organized by Civita Mostre e Musei in collaboration with diChroma photography and Rjma Progetti Culturali.