From 21th November 2015 to 29 th May 2016
Fundació Stämpfli – Art Contemporani
Plaça de l’Ajuntament, 13. Sitges (Barcelona)
Exhibition coordinated by Ferran Martínez Sancho
Portraits, objects, landscapes, nature scenes, bodies… Peter Knapp’s photography takes in different styles and disciplines, characterized by their expressivity. Peter Knapp’s work is on display in the foundation’s rooms 2 & 3, while room 1 presents a selection from the general collection.
Room 2
Three series are on display in the ground floor room: the first, GREAT MAKEUP, is formal in nature; the other two, THE COLOR OF SKIN and COMPOUND FAMILIES address highly topical social issues: in one, racism, and in the other, the non-traditional composition of many present day families.
GREAT MAKEUP
Fashion photography is always a beautiful, attractive, but totally idealized image. For the photographer, it means facing a ton of limitations. Drawing on the negative of the model’s photographs, the artist breaks away from these limitations and adds a new makeup that changes and redirects the meaning of the root photographic image.
THE COLOR OF SKIN
In the city of Cergy Pontoise, 30 kilometers from Paris, the population is highly mixed, with skin colors going from black to white, and including all of the intermediate subtleties. A digital reading of skin color gives us a figure corresponding to a Pantone number, the international color chart used by all designers.
COMPOSED FAMILIES
The discussion and the manifestations revolving around marriage, divorce, homosexuality and recomposed families have caused great media debates on the nature of the present day family. The images correspond to a series of recomposed families with an object of their choice that characterizes them. There is nothing that seems to distinguish them from traditional families.
Room 3
Presented in this room is a short summary of the artist’s career. It began in the 60s and 70s, when he shaped his prestige as a fashion photographer, the artistic director for Elle magazine and a close collaborator with the most important fashion designers, like Courrèges or Valentino.
Later on, he embarked on an important conceptual artistic career. Peter Knapp offers us a personal way of looking at the world as evidenced by series like L’homme est partout, Il fait beau and Vol París-Zuric, which are featured prominently at the exhibition.