Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century — Art Institute of Chicago

August 5th, 2010 - Source: Art Institute of Chicago
From a young age, Cartier-Bresson was fully immersed in the active cultural life of Paris. Originally trained as a painter by his uncle and then apprenticed with the artist André Lhote, he was also an avid reader who found his way into the back rooms of the Dame Blanche and other Parisian cafés where the poet André Breton and his fellow Surrealists held forth. When he was 24, Cartier- Bresson discovered the Leica—a light, handheld 35mm camera that served as the sketchbook for the private observations he made while discovering himself, ideas, and the world around him. He would later become a master of candid “street” photography who influenced—and continues to influence—generations of photographers that followed.

Cartier-Bresson honed his skills as a photographer in the early 1930s, and his inventive work during this time period helped to define the artistic potential of modern photography. A decade later, after surviving three years as a prisoner of war, Cartier-Bresson emerged from World War II determined to document a world in the midst of profound change. He did so in 1947 by joining Robert Capa and others to found Magnum Photos—an organization that allowed photojournalists to reach broad audiences through such publications as Life and Paris Match while still retaining independence and control over their work. Magnum Photos quickly established itself as a model photo agency that to this day serves as one of the most important “archives” of the significant events of the 20th century. Cartier-Bresson, with his extraordinary ability to capture images of life on the run, was one of its leading photographers, and his portfolio bears witness to his personal credo of capturing "the decisive moment,” which is also the title his first major book, published in 1952.

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century is organized in distinct, thematic sections. The first two sections are chronological surveys focusing on Cartier-Bresson’s independent work of the early 1930s and immediately following World War II. Following this early work is the photographer’s treatment of the ancient patterns of life in three parts of the world: the East (India and Indonesia at the time of their independence, including his iconic pictures of Mahatma Gandhi's last days and the aftermath of his death), the West (particularly the Soviet Union, as Cartier-Bresson was the first non-Soviet photographer to gain access to the country after Stalin’s death in 1953), and France. Also included here are photographs taken in the United States during the postwar boom, many of which have never been seen before, and during his four-month stay in China in 1958 documenting that country's "Great Leap Forward." Concluding the exhibition are sections organized around such themes as the subject of beauty, street crowds and gatherings around the world, the transformation of Europe as old cultures are confronted with modern realities, and portrait work. The 34 portraits in the exhibition in particular reveal the artist's skill as a keen observer of the human condition and as one of the great portraitists of the 20th century.