Chromotherapia. The Feel-Good Color Photography

Curated by Maurizio Cattelan and Sam Stourdzé, the exhibition hosted at the Academy of France - Villa Medici invites us to explore the history of color photography over the whole course of the 20th century through the eyes of 20 artists. The exhibition itinerary is divided into 7 sections that transport us to a world dominated by vibrant colors – lemon yellow, deep blue, bright red and bright orange. 

The conquest of color in photography closely followed the invention of the medium, with the first scientific experiments taking place in the mid-19th century. In 1907, the first industrial color photographic emerged with the autochrome, created by the Lumière brothers. This ushered in a century of chromatic experimentation and color became an essential narrative element. Although it has often enjoyed less fortune than black and white, color photography has allowed photographers to let their hair down, to repaint the world by flirting with pop, surrealism, bling, kitsch and baroque and infusing images with life and emotion.

This intensely chromatic vision of the world emerges, for example, in the photos by William Wegman, who immortalizes his dogs by transforming them into artistic icons; in the cats photographed against saturated backgrounds against saturated backgrounds by Walter Chandoha, nicknamed “The Cat Photographer”; in the vibrant tones used by Ouka Leele to capture the liberation of bodies in the context of the cultural and social revolution of the Movida; in the disruption of the visual conventions of cinema and advertising present in Juno Calypso’s shots; or again in baskets of fries on which Martin Parr directs his lens, ironically suggesting the indigestion of the modern world. A worthy descendant of these artists is, in more recent years, the magazine Toiletpaper conceived by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, which dialogues and feeds on this small, sparkling, chromatic story.

Artists: Miles Aldridge, Erwin Blumenfeld, Guy Bourdin, Juno Calypso, Walter Chandoha, Harold Edgerton, Hassan Hajjaj, Hiro, Ouka Leele, Arnold Odermatt, Ruth Ginika Ossai, Martin Parr, Pierre et Gilles, Alex Prager, Adrienne Raquel, Sandy Skoglund, Toiletpaper, William Wegman, Madame Yevonde.

Martin Parr, Ramsgate, England, 1996. From Common Sense © Magnum Photos