surrealism is also photographic

One hundred years after the publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism by André Bretonthe Centre Pompidou and other cultural institutions are celebrating one of the most important artistic movements of the twentieth century. The Showers Gallery is part of this program with the exhibition “An American Surrealist in Paris”a spotlight on the work of Val Telberga unique experimental artist and photographer to discover until November 10, 2024.

It was in 1945 that Val Telberg really began to use photography as a medium. He bought his first enlarger and composed images by superimposing several negativesthus creating amazing overprints. A feeling of uncanny strangeness that his works provoke, mixed with a certain dreaminess and an aesthetic research quickly places Val Telberg in the surrealist movement.

Always one glancesomewhere in the image, or a facehidden behind other bodies or urban structures which makes each image very dynamic from a compositional point of view. Bordering abstractionit is not surprising to learn that Val Telberg was also painter And sculptorand that his masters came from a practice plasticmore than purely visual.

The generational obsessions are there: the rebellionTHE body, urban planning… Val Telberg’s work that he produced in the 1940s and 1950s can be read as a (re)reading very personal questions that other artists of his time were asking themselves. We saw this with Jean-Claude Gautrand who was exhibiting at the same gallery just before; aesthetic experimentation then appears as a saving way to understand the world’s disruptions that recent wars and late capitalism have caused.

Almost thirty years after his death, Val Telberg’s works are among the most important American museum collections. prestigious ; until recently, when the Galerie les Douches and the Centre Pompidou took an interest in his work, which allows us to discover it today in France with a retrospective look which does not in any way detract from the quality of its avant-garde overprints.

Practical information:
An American Surrealist in ParisVal Telberg
Showers Gallery
From September 12 to November 10, 2024
5 rue Légouve, 75010 Paris
Wednesday to Saturday from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Free entry