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until 15.09. | #2123ARTatBerlin | CWC Gallery currently shows the solo exhibition The Nineties with photographs by Michel Comte.
The CWC GALLERY is pleased to present a solo exhibition by the photo artist Michel Comte from 28 July 2018 onwards. With more than 70 works, the exhibition gives a comprehensive insight into the impressive artistic work of Michel Comte of the 1990s. Michel Comte is one of the most important contemporary fashion and society photographers in history. His visual aesthetics influenced the 1990s and, above all, has had a lasting influence on fashion photography to this day.
»In Comte’s paintings, art and reality collide. They are brutal and poetic – dazzle and disturb. The emotions that evoke them are painful and complex: food for the mind and soul.«
– Geraldine Chaplin on Michel Comte
From Nadja Auermann to Gisele Bündchen or Helena Christensen to Claudia Schiffer and Bridget Hall: Michel Comte has always been one of the few photographers who has worked with the world’s most famous top models in history. Unconditional confidence in Michel Comte’s artistic understanding and the “relationship” with him results in unexpected scenarios and in a revelatory devotion that is reflected in the photographic works. Be it a glamorous and graceful looking Cindy Crawford or a self-assuredly posing Naomi Campbell: the photographs are always surrounded by a tangible aura that evolves from the mutual play between Michel Comte and the model.
The portraits of important personalities from the worlds of drama, culture, sports and music also reveal Michel Comte’s special access to the portrayed. Imagery, color and structure do not move in any frozen patterns. Rather, Michel Comte’s aesthetic line is defined by artistic diversity and openness, a cinematic view, and the experimental use of numerous stylistic devices. These adapt to the individual portrayed – each personality evokes in Comte a certain imagery, which emerges from the “soul” and the exterior. For example, Michel Comte’s portrait of Robbie Williams reflects the multi-faceted and extravagant appearance of the musician, while the atmospheric photography of Charlotte Rampling equals a visual personality study.
© MICHEL COMTE, GISELE BÜNDCHEN (VOGUE ITALIA), CANNES, FRANCE, 1999
About Michel Comte
Born in 1954 in Zurich, the son of the Swiss aviation pioneer Alfred Comte, Michel Comte first trained as a restorer before devoting himself to photography as an autodidact. At the age of 25, Comte was first engaged by Karl Lagerfeld and Chloe for a major advertising campaign and from then on worked in Paris. For the American »Vogue«, for which the artist produced numerous campaigns, the artist then moved to New York. Within just a few years, Michel Comte became one of the most sought-after and popular fashion, portrait and nude photographers in the world, producing influential photo series for leading magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair or Vogue, and has had a lasting influence on photography. In addition to his genre, which was prescribed right from the start, Michel Comte immediately developed an increased interest in documentary photography and is working as a reporter for the International Red Cross. The photographic works of Michel Comte are part of numerous renowned collections and are shown in international exhibitions. The artist lives in New York today.
Exhibition period: Samstag, 28. Juli – Samstag, 15. September 2018
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Image caption: © MICHEL COMTE, GISELE BÜNDCHEN (VOGUE ITALIA), CANNES, FRANCE, 1999
Exhibition Michel Comte – The Nineties – CWC Gallery | Contemporary Art – Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | ART at Berlin
