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The commission in Photography and in the Visual Art

FREEDOM OR CONSTRAINT - PLACE AND ROLE IN HISTORY

8th-10th July at the Théâtre d’Arles

Chaired by Christian Lacroix, artistic director of Arles 2008, François Barré, festival president, and François Hébel, festival director.
In partnership with Connaissance des Arts.

For many artists, a commission is a stimulus; a starting-point for their work.

Creators quickly take possession of the concept, and view it as a constant challenge to their imagination and talent. It imposes a deadline, limiting doubt and production time. A commissioned work becomes a balancing act, in which every stakeholder has a role to play. Client and contractors are thus required to propose, to invent, to experiment and – especially – to make the concept as enduring as possible.

The commission explores the meaning and nature of the work of art. Does it arise by force of circumstance, answering unasked questions and being generated internally? Or, conversely, can it satisfy an external request and, like architecture, fit into a project-led culture? All history demonstrates that both paths can lead to brilliance without sapping the ability of art to unsettle and disturb as well as to enchant.

So, a little history...
The golden age of the commission began with the Italian Renaissance, Lorenzo de’ Medici hired many artists including, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Filippino Lippi.

Isabella d’Este, meanwhile, collected paintings by Mantegna, Costa, Perugino and, later, by Correggio. In 1547 the dukes of Saxe-Weimar, who belonged to the royal house of Saxe, chose to reside in Weimar. The city became a centre of culture and hosted numerous artists such as Lucas Cranach and Johann Sebastian Bach.

In the 18th century the princes Esterhazy, a noble Hungarian family, employed Joseph Haydn for more than thirty years, enabling him to compose some of his finest pieces.

The portrait galleries in palaces and chateaux that display the genealogical magnificence of aristocratic families are also the fruit of commissions, as are the photographs of French presidents (shown at Arles in 2007) and the – more inventive – portraits of Queen Elizabeth II.

In the early 20th century, Paul Sacher, himself a musician and conductor, dedicated his fortune to serving art.

Principally a patron of Bartok, Martinu, Stravinsky and Boulez, he stated as an imperative that “commissions should give voice to our era”.

In France, the public commissioning of art has gradually become institutionalised since 1851, reflecting the wish of a republic of the arts to perpetuate princes’ pleasures and the great minds cultivated by enlightened despots, according to democratic principles (or, some would say, technocratic principles). This new era has been marked by the desire to take art out of specialist venues and into public spaces, and to share art with every citizen.

The Ministry of Culture and its Visual Arts Department have been the driving forces behind these shifts.

Guy Tortosa assesses the evolution of public commissions in these terms: “Far from being confused with an artistic
category, the public commission must primarily be seen as a human, legal and budgetary scheme set up by a patron
State for use by artists and authorities who wish to produce genuine works of art – in other words, works that are not imitations, existing in spaces and times not allowed by the conditions that artists are usually provided with by galleries, museums and art centres”.

The “Nouveaux Commanditaires” experiment initiated by the Fondation de France and led by François Hers has placed the commission within citizens’ direct reach and given expression to a demand that no longer emanates from institutions but from neighbourhoods and communities.

Commissioned photography:
The first public commission of photographs – the “Mission Héliographique” – was an initiative by France’s Historic Monuments Commission. In 1851, Le Gray and Mestral covered the regions of Touraine and Aquitaine; Le Secq recorded Champagne, Alsace and Lorraine. In total, the survey spanned 120 sites and 47 départements.

From the 1850s onwards, in the Paris district of Opéra and in London’s Regent Street, portrait studios flourished.

The Tournachon (aka Nadar) brothers immortalised Baudelaire, Daumier, Berlioz, Sarah Bernhardt and the mime Deburau.

Disdéri patented his photographic business card.

In the United States, following the 1929 stock-market crash, the Farm Security Administration recruited a dozen photographers to record the life of American farmers.

From 1935 to 1942, more than 270,000 photographs were taken – most notably by Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein and Dorothea Lange.

In post-war France, two large institutions (and commissioners of images), the Commissariat Général au Tourisme and La Documentation Française, enlisted photographers to promote the country’s distinguishing features and to present didactically its geography, economy and people.

Previously unseen facets of society attracted the attention and empathy of photographers such as Doisneau, who, against everyone’s advice, devoted a book to the suburbs of Paris and how they were changing. Kertesz photographed Breton farmers, and Germaine Krull captured Les Halles, Paris’s main outdoor market.

In 1983, the photography mission of France’s regional development agency (DATAR) was launched by Bernard Latarjet and François Hers to gather “viewpoints” on the country’s landscape – not an inventory so much as a history both of perspectives and of landscapes.

Each guest photographer chose their approach, partaking in the diversity and riches of one of the finest ever photographic assignments.

Advertising and fashion have created a new kind of commissioning party: art directors, who, operating between client and artist, shape new graphic concepts.

Among the most celebrated were Alexei Brodovitch, art director of Harper’s Bazaar from 1934-1958; Alexander Liberman, art director of Vogue from 1943; and Condé Nast, another Vogue art director. Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, William Klein, Peter Lindbergh, Oliviero Toscani, Jeanloup Sieff and Peter Knapp (who himself became art director of Elle) earned their first recognition in these fashion magazines.

This three-day conference, chaired by Christian Lacroix, François Barré and François Hébel, will revisit this field and explore in detail the issues involved – while not forgetting to illustrate them.

Conference prepared by Françoise Docquiert, senior lecturer at University of Paris-1 Panthéon Sorbonne, and Samuel Kirszenbaum, University of Paris-VII.

8th July
The commission in photography and the visual arts
Place and role in history. Current developments.

Opening address by Christian Lacroix, artistic director of the 2008 Rencontres, and by François Hébel, Rencontres d’Arles director
With:
François Barré, Rencontres d’Arles president,
Anne De Mondenard, head of the photography library,
at the City of Paris Architecture and Heritage Media Library,
Gilles Fuchs, president of the association for the international dissemination of French art (ADIAF), Founder of the Prix Marcel Duchamp, and collector,
Olivier Kaeppelin, head of visual arts, Ministry of Culture Bernard Latarjet, director-general of Marseille Provence 2013, association for the European Capital of Culture candidature,
Claude Lévèque, artist.

9th July
The public commission today.

With: Agnès De Gouvion Saint-Cyr, inspector-general of photography, visual arts department, Ministry of Culture,
John Demos, photographer, director of Apeiron Photos Agency
Xavier Douroux, co-director of the contemporary art centre , Le Consortium in Dijon, and head of “Les Nouveaux Commanditaires” mission in Burgundy,
Françoise Huguier, photographer,
Mimmo Jodice, photographer,
Jean-Michel Othoniel, sculptor.

10th July
The commission and fashion.

Chaired by Edmonde Charles-Roux,
president of the Académie Goncourt,
and by Christian Lacroix, couturier and artistic director
of the 2008 Rencontres.

With: Elisabeth Biondi, visuals editor of The New Yorker,
Peter Lindberg, photographer,
Paolo Roversi, photographer,
Masoud Golsorkhi, publisher and editor of Tank magazine, Rémi Babinet, Founder and Artistic Director of BETC.

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