Artists

Brassaï

Press release

Brassaï is one of the most famous photographers in the history of photography. In the early 1930s, he set out with his camera on long nocturnal walks through Paris. Revolving around this treasure of images, the exhibition "Brassaï – The Secret Signs of Paris" includes over 160 black-and-white photographs.

There are three themes in Brassaï's photographic production and in the exhibition "Brassaï – The Secret Signs of Paris": the city of Paris with its inhabitants and environments, the portraits of artists and their works, and the city's graffiti. Brassaï's photographs invite us to decipher signs – the traces of events and human presence – and to search for the answer to the city's many mysteries. – Anna Tellgren, Curator The exhibition "Brassaï – The Secret Signs of Paris" includes more than 160 vintage gelatine silver prints made by the photographer himself. The first room of the exhibition features Brassaï's legendary night photographs of Paris, its inhabitants and environments. The middle room shows his extensive documentation of the city's graffiti, and the last room of the exhibition presents more of his images of life in Paris. Brassaï's film from the mid-1950s, "Tant qu'il y aura des bêtes" (As Long as There Are Animals), which was awarded as the most innovative short film at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956, is also included in the exhibition. Gyula Halász (1899–1984) grew up in Brassó in Transylvania, then Hungary. After studying art in Budapest and Berlin, he moved to Paris in 1924 and took the name Brassaï, which means "from Brassó". He was versatile and devoted himself to drawing, painting, sculpture and photography in parallel.

Literature was another great interest. Brassaï moved in Parisian artist circles and his contact with the surrealists, as well as his friendship with Pablo Picasso, sharpened his eye for the unexpected and overlooked. His major breakthrough as a photographer came with the book "Paris de nuit" ("Paris by Night"), published in 1933. On his wanderings in Paris, Brassaï also discovered street graffiti, which he documented in an extensive series of photographs until the 1950s. At the same time, he also made reporting trips for the magazine "Harper's Bazaar" to Brazil, Greece and Sweden, among other places. Brassaï died in 1984, after receiving several awards and participating in exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States during his final years.