The Canal Mateo Inurria Foundation is hosting an exhibition from 8 February to 23 April, in which around 150 colour images by Jacques Henri Lartigue will be on display for the first time ever in Spain. There will also be a publication with a selection of the works on display in the exhibition with explanatory texts by the curators, Marion Perceval and Anne Morin.

The photographer, painter and writer, Lartigue (1894-1986), is known as a maestro of French photography, mainly in black and white, although a third of his collection is in colour. It is a surprising and practically unknown facet for the audience of the artist’s work, which was ignored for a long time.

He was considered to be the forefather of photographic modernity but was not recognised until the age of 69, thanks to his first exhibition at the MoMA in New York.  In the same year, Life magazine devoted a portfolio to him, which went all around the world, making his black and white photographs famous and turning him into one of the great names of 20th century photography overnight.  

The exhibition in Madrid, curated by Marion Perceval (Donation Lartigue) and Anne Morin (diChroma photography), represents a uniqueness of this maestro, which he defined throughout his life: his desire to capture the happy moments  in which he had participated and witnessed.

It consists of three sections which correspond to three moments in which the photographer addressed colour throughout his career; a simultaneous screening with black and white photographs and the subsequent reproduction in colour; activities like in-person and on-line guided visits, and studio-visits for families in which adults and children alike discovered the secrets of Lartigue’s work in a fun and entertaining way.

Image Credits: 

• Florette Lartigue on a picnic, 1965. © Jacques Henri Lartigue, Ministry of Culture, France / MAP-AAJHL