VENICE - The story of a "short century" before digital, from 1910 to 1979, through 407 images, almost all in black and white, taken by 187 photographers, many famous ones, to be published in those years in the group's magazines " Condè Nast", presented as works of art detached from their editorial context, to illustrate, says Matthieu Humery, "the men, women, historical moments, daily life, dreams and tragedies of the 20th century".
"Fragments of the past. Photographic treasures of the 20th century", from the Condè Nast archives, partly acquired by the Pinault Collection in 2021, which make up the "Chronorama" exhibition, scheduled at Palazzo Grassi, in Venice, from 12 March to 7 next January (Marsilio Arte catalogue).
"Although the exhibition follows a strictly chronological order - notes Bruno Racine, director and CEO of Palazzo Grassi-Punta della Dogana in the catalog - the experience of the images is anything but linear. Therefore, what was once considered audacious and radical , like a woman wearing trousers in the early 20th century, could later represent the height of elegance or banality".
Just "Dr. Mary Walker, the first woman who wore trousers in public" by Paul Thompson, from 1911, is the photograph that the visitor encounters in the first room.
The route - with images signed by photographers such as Penn, Beaton, Horst, Kertesz, Lee Miller, Brassai, Diane Arbus, Bailey, Klein,
Mulas - spans seven decades and offers a comprehensive overview of the evolution of taste in Western society.
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