After Eden : The Walther Collection

Since its opening, each autumn la maison rouge has shown a major international collection. For its thirteenth showing of a private collection, the foundation presents for the first time a photography collection with a selection of more than 800 photographs from The Walther Collection. Over a period of twenty years, Artur Walther (born in Ulm, Germany), has assembled one of the most important collections of photography in the world, remarkable for its international scope, its quality, and its focus on large series by individual artists. Since 2010, The Walther Collection has been on show to the public in two museum spaces, one in Neu-Ulm and one in New York. For La maison rouge, the curator Simon Njami has conceived an exhibition-cum-fable that offers a broad view of human subjects, based on themes like landscape, portraiture, the city, and alterity, and combining works and photographic practices from different periods and origins that are all linked by a serial approach to the medium. In the exhibition, German conceptual pioneers (Karl Blossfeldt, August Sander, and Bernd and Hilla Becher) are presented in dialogue with contemporary photographers from Europe, the United States and, above all, Africa and Asia (including Richard Avedon, Nobuyoshi Araki, Seydou Keïta, Santu Mofokeng, Zanele Muholi, and Zhang Huan), but also with images whose unidentified authors were working in ethnographic, scientific, or legal contexts. Complete list of exhibited artists: Ai Weiwei (1957, China), Dieter Appelt (1935, Germany), Nobuyoshi Araki (1940, Japan), Richard Avedon (1923–2004, United States), Sammy Baloji (1978, Democratic Republic of the Congo), Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé (1963, Nigeria), Bernd and Hilla Becher (Bernd Becher, 1931–2007, Germany; Hilla Becher, 1931, Germany), Alphonse Bertillon (1853­–1914, France), Jodi Bieber (1966, South Africa), Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932, Germany), Candice Breitz (1972, South Africa), Alfred Martin Duggan-Cronin (1874-1954, South Africa) Theo Eshetu (1958, United Kingdom), Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955, Nigeria), Samuel Fosso (1962, Cameroun), Francis Galton (1822–1911, United Kingdom), David Goldblatt (1930, South Africa), Huang Yan (1966, China), Seydou Keïta (1921–2001, Mali), Hiroh Kikai (1945, Japan), Yoshikazu Suzuki and Shohachi Kimura (Suzuki, unknown dates, Japan; Kimura, 1893–1958, Japan), Ma Liuming (1969, China), Luo Yongjin (1960, China), Jules Bernard Luys (1828–1897, France), Christine Meisner (1970, Germany), Arwed Messmer (1964, Germany), Duane Michals (1932, United States), Sabelo Mlangeni (1980, South Africa),Santu Mofokeng (1956, South Africa), Daido Moriyama (1938, Japan), Zanele Muholi (1972, South Africa), Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904, United Kingdom), Jo Ractliffe (1961, South Africa), Thomas Ruff (1958, Germany), Ed Ruscha (1937, United States), August Sander (1876–1964, Germany), Leonhard Schultze-Jena (1872–1955, Germany), Stephen Shore (1947, United States), Malick Sidibé (1935, Mali), Penny Siopis (1953, South Africa), Song Dong (1966, China), Thomas Struth (1954, Germany), Mikhael Subotzky (1981, South Africa), Guy Tillim (1962, South Africa), Patrick Waterhouse (1981, United Kingdom), Kohei Yoshiyuki (1946, Japan), Yang Fudong (1971, China), Zhang Huan (1965, China) La Maison Rouge 10 boulevard de la bastille 75012 Paris France www.lamaisonrouge.org