Paris, France, Fall 2010

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Thursday, 02 December 2010 14:39

Written by William Messer

The French are not known as a culture which has difficulty with visible sexuality in art, but this ceased to be the case when it came to exhibiting American photographer and filmmaker (Kids, Ken Park) Larry Clark’s 200-plus piece retrospective photography exhibition Kiss the Past Hello at la Musée d’Art Modern de las Ville Paris this October, 2010. For what is believed the first time, entrance to an art exhibition was restricted to those 18 or older.

Ironically, Clark’s photographs document teen aged lives, and more specifically teen age lust (also the title of Clark’s second book), a lust for sex, drinking, drugs, guns etc., often quite explicitly. They also reflect a disturbingly problematic affinity for his subjects which suggests an inability to grow up beyond this post adolescent excess.

Thus 17-year olds (and younger) were prevented from viewing the recorded lives of other 17-year olds (and younger) in another place and time and learning from the way those other lives were lived.

“You can’t show images that are disturbing to minors,” explained the exhibit’s curator, Sébastien Gokalp, “so we banned them from attending.”

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë weighed in to defend the Museum’s actions, claiming some of the most objectionable work had never been exhibited before and violated French law which may prohibits showing pornographic or violent imagery to minors.

"The 2007  Maison Européenne de la Photographie Larry Clark exhibition did present some images from Teenage Lust, but none of the ones that have been classified as too violent or shocking." In fact, Delanoë adds, the New York museums which own Teenage Lust have never shown all of the images that constitute the controversial work.

Additionally, the editing of the exhibition’s catalogue as a book was moved from France after six of the images made the Museum’s publishing house, Paris Musées, uncomfortable; it now will be published by Luhring Augustine and Simon Lee, Clark’s London and New York galleries.

Clark reacted to the restrictions calling them “ridiculous,” “censorship” and “an attack by adults against teenagers” preventeing them from recognizing themselves, and suggested the ban be reversed, allowing teen agers to see the exhibit and preventing adults.

Other charges of censorship were raised by the Green Party (calling the banning “an excess of prudence” and “a dangerous precedent”), human rights groups and the International Art Critics Association (AICA); while the leftist daily newspaper Liberation went so far as to place one the the offending images designated by the City of Paris on its front page and all on its websites.

Following the controversy at MAM in Paris, the director of the Centre Paul Klee de Berne, Switzerland decided to remove two Clark photographs from its exhibition about the Seven Deadly Sins, stating that the removal of the Clark photographs was done in light of the controversy at the Paris exhibition.

Barely 100 meters down the hill from the Clark exhibition at the MAM is a venue previously unknown to me in the Fondation Bergé Yves Saint Laurent, exhibiting new work by British artist David Hockney, entitled Fleurs fraîches (Fresh Flowers).

It’s no mere coincidence the the three images illustrating the exhibition on the brochure, posters and illuminated billboards around Paris represent flowers on window ledges; many of the pieces in the exhibition are images of the fresh flowers Hockney’s companion began putting in his bedroom window each morning.

But more importantly the work about light, how light defines a subject, even light itself as subject, as it is work in which luminosity is created by the work, as the work itself contains its own light source. These are “drawings” made, and exhibited, on iPhones and iPads.

The play between light often depicted within the images and light projected by the images propels the work and compels enhanced appreciation of Hockney’s artistic awareness and aptitude, as well as his skill as a draughtsman.

It’s tempting to term these works finger paintings, although no paint is involved, as they draw on the skillful application and manipulation of the artist’s fingers and nails and draw on the technology of painting programs available as applications). Especially on the iPhone, Hockney often drew with his thumb. “I could hold it in my right hand and my thumb could reach every corner of the screen... I could then have a cigarette in my left hand to help me concentrate.”

It sounds rather casual but the results are impressive, sometimes seeming flat and decorative as wallpaper, other times not only representing three dimensional space convincingly but effectively evoking the sense of light permeating the space.

Kiss The Past Hello Exhibit
la Musée d’Art Modern de las Ville Paris
October 8, 2010 - January 2, 2011
11 avenue du President Wilson
75116 Paris
Tel: 01 53 67 40 00

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