Lee Friedlander and Adolf Mas at the KBr Mapfre Foundation

The Mapfre Foundation's KBr photography center opens the Lee Friedlander and Adolf Mas exhibitions on 16 February. The eyes of Barcelona that can be visited until May 8 and 15 respectively.

The Lee Friedlander exhibition takes a complete chronological tour of the artist's extensive work, which he almost always groups into series, sets of photographs that he develops over several years. Reconstructing the heterogeneous work of Lee Friedlander means immersing ourselves in a world laden with everyday and recognizable elements that, however, after a slow reflection, acquire a different, more complete meaning. Considered one of the fundamental artists of the twentieth century, after more than sixty years of photographing every day, he continues to renew his language. In this search for difficult-to-understand visual metaphors, despite their apparent everyday life, his critical gaze has reflected, always for strictly formal purposes, the enormity and chaos of American society.

The exhibition highlights the importance of these projects, which are often translated into books, another of his passions: The Little Screens , The American Monument and America by Car are just three examples. There are also thematic or stylistic associations that bring together nearly three hundred photographs including portraits, self-portraits, family photographs, nature, cityscape, and so on. These include seventeen members of the MAPFRE Foundation Collections, as well as other materials — such as jazz records and nearly fifty publications. All this brings us closer to the complex work of one of the most influential American photographers of the 20th century.

In his work, Friedlander contrasts the ideals of modern practice by looking at mass culture in search of inspiration, similar to what pop art did , thus breaking with traditional means of representation. In this sense, it incorporates a banal repertoire, creates confusing visual arguments and shakes the viewer with a sense of irony derived from juxtapositions of seemingly unrelated objects and ideas that contrasts with the seriousness of former professionals.

Juegos. Gran Vía de les Cortes Catalanas Adolf Mas, 1906 © Fundació Institut Amatller d'Art Hispànic

In the exhibition Adolf Mas. Els ulls de Barcelona, Fundación MAPFRE, in collaboration with the Mas Archive of the Fundació Institut Amatller d'Art Hispànic, presents a tour of the work of this Catalan photographer, known for the importance of his work in the 'field of heritage photography and an essential reference in understanding the social transformation of Barcelona at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Carmen Perrotta, curator of the exhibition, explains how "Adolf Mas's photographs portray a Barcelona in full transformation from a sociocultural, artistic, political and urban perspective. The graphic story that the photographer builds allows us to explore a reality "Knowing his photographic legacy is fundamental to correctly interpreting certain dynamics linked to Barcelona since the beginning of the twentieth century."

With 200 photographs and various documentary material, the exhibition “Adolf Mas. Els ulls de Barcelona »takes a broad tour of the work of this key figure in Catalan noucentista photography, divided into four thematic sections that cover the central aspects of his career.

The core of the exhibition includes the photographic production generated by the author in the framework of Barcelona. Adolf Mas captures the city's architectural, social and cultural changes in images that intersect the documentary record and the aesthetic lines of contemporary European artistic currents. A Barcelona of contrasts, stratified between the ruins of the suburbs and the mansions of the Eixample, between the luxurious cafes of the center destined for the enjoyment of the bourgeoisie and the barracks erected by the beggars of Barceloneta.

The exhibition is completed with a section dedicated to heritage cataloging campaigns and the structure of what has been recognized as the most important photographic archive in Europe on Spanish heritage: the Mas Archive.

Along with the work of the photographer, it includes pieces by artists such as Ramon Casas, Alexandre de Riquer and Eusebi Arnau produced around his photographic establishment.

The exhibition is part of the line of programming that Fundación MAPFRE has started in Barcelona in collaboration with Catalan institutions that guard a rich photographic heritage. This time, the exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Fundació Institut Amatller d'Art Hispànic. In addition, we have had the generosity of the Diputació de Barcelona, Arxiu General; the Library of Catalonia, Barcelona; the Historical Archive of the City of Barcelona; the Photographic Archive of Barcelona, Barcelona City Council; the MAE-Institut del Teatre and the private collection of the Pasans Bertolin Family, who have lent their works disinterestedly.

The exhibition thus restores to us the extraordinary visual landscape and the collective memory of the Barcelona of the beginning of the last century seen through the eyes of Adolf Mas, one of the indisputable protagonists of the history of modern photography in our country.

Images:

Maria, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1970. Courtesy of the artist and the Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco © Lee Friedlander, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Luhring Augustine, New York