Word: brassai
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Brassai's "Eye of Paris" and recent drawings and photographs by Natalie Alper continue at MIT's Hayden Gallery through...
...matter what subject or technique Brassai chooses to explore, certain characteristics--seriousness, sensitivity to nuances of form and mood, and a sly sense of irony--are constants in his work. Brassai does not take "candid shots." He does not seek to catch his subject off guard or in moments of transition or private distress. Instead he watches patiently for those moments of equipoise when all that is most permanent and most characteristic is most visible in the face and pose of his sitter. An angry couple sit turned away from each other in a bar, their faces sullen masks lined...
...time does Brassai treat his sitters as objects of derision or freaks. His pimps and prostitutes are denizens of a bizarre twilight world but within this world they have dignity and command respect. Bijou stares at the camera forthrightly, without embarrassment or shame. When Brassai does choose to comment, it is most likely to be in the form of a juxtaposition of incongruous images--a derelict lying on the pavement under a huge advertisement for salad dressing or a close up of the large and powerful hind quarters of a horse cleaved by a gaily braided tail...
...Brassai's sensitivity to the character of a subject or situation is matched by an acute eye for form, for the subtle variations of light and dark and shape against background that make his pictures such beautiful formal structures, as well as compelling documents...
...Brassai brings to all his work a rare combination of intelligence and intuition. He is a deliberate creator, patient and painstaking, with a deep committment to the demands of both art and humanity. If he had never chanced to discover his aptitude for taking pictures Paris would have had another biographer but the art of photography would have been immeasurably poorer...