ROOM 1
VARIOUS ARTISTS
— Maillol Horvat
A sculptor is someone in love with forms.
Maillol
Photography is the art of not pressing the shutter button.
Horvat
Under the title Maillol Horvat (Gallimard – Galerie Dina Vierny), a book was published in 2015 that contained photographs taken by Frank Horvat (Abbazia, 1928) of terracotta sculptures by artist Aristide Maillol (Banyuls-sur-mer, 1861-1944), accompanied by the photographer’s thoughts.
The exhibition we present now, curated by Àlex Susanna (who wrote the introduction to that book), puts these works—the result of the convergence of both artists—within the public’s reach for the first time. Visitors will be able to personally experience and enjoy 18 sculptures and 59 photographs that convey all the sensitivity and delicacy with which both the sculptor and the photographer treated their models.
Maillol studied Fine Arts in Paris, but it wasn’t until he was 40 that he came across clay and its sculptural possibilities, and it happened almost accidentally. His first steps as a painter and tapestry maker, influenced by the Arts & Crafts movement, didn’t obtain the recognition he desired. The serious illness he suffered in one of his eyes led him to experiment with sculpture, unaware that this discipline would become his best ally. In 1902 he celebrated his first exhibition with the support of art dealer Ambroise Vollard, a show that would open the doors to a new life, receiving recognition from critics and allowing him to live off his art from that moment forth. Rodin was one of his first clients and also one of the figures that most influenced his work during the first stage. However, he would soon delve deep into his own three-dimensional style, totally devoted to the idea of pursuing forms, always based on female figures.
Following World War II, Maillol’s work lost its prestige due to his friendship with Arno Breker, the official sculptor of the Third Reich, a friendship Maillol never denied, mainly because of his political disaffection. His public image and work eventually recovered its prestige when, in 1964, an important series of his bronze sculptures was exhibited in the Tuileries Garden in Paris. Thus, France reclaimed the figure of Maillol as one of its great sculptors of the 20th century, along with Rodin and Bourdelle. In the international sphere, he personified as few others did the serene, classical and southern alternative to Rodinian impressionism. In Catalonia, his work was a model for art produced during the Noucentisme movement.
Horvat is one of many photographers who have felt attracted to Maillol’s work. Both share a passion for the female figure: one dedicated half his life to giving volume to feminine forms, while the other has immortalised them in thousands of photographs, always in search of the gaze and the expression of the soul. Horvat’s eye and camera are capable of extracting what’s most genuine, even when it comes to terracotta figures.
Horvat shared his space with these figures for months, positioning them on a table with wheels in his studio. Through a mixture of meticulousness and intuition, he would search for the right angle and position in the space and, when his model was prepared, would press the shutter button with a certain serenity and with the spirit of a poet. “For me, photography is not really a visual art, but something closer to poetry,” he states. The result: a conversation between him and those static women, apparently silent yet full of thoughts and concerns. Horvat knew how to listen to them and transmit their spiritual dimension. Pure magic?
Frank Horvat discovered the camera at a young age and in an almost casual way. Born into a family of doctors, he became acquainted with photography thanks to an uncle who was an enthusiast of this practice. Once his passion was discovered, he took the first steps during his youth following a spontaneous visit to the Magnum agency in Paris. The welcome his future mentor, Henri Cartier-Bresson, gave him left him cold: “Who put your eyes on your stomach? God?” That comment affected Horvat so much that, irritated, he began the hunt for his purest instinct. He has kept his guard up since then, holding his camera at eye level.
Horvat began his career as a reporter, but soon entered the world of fashion, working for the most select brands and magazines in both Europe and the United States. Despite the coldness of those professional environments, he never abandoned the search for the sensitivity and spirit of everything he portrayed, developing a style that created a movement.