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FOR IMMEDATE RELEASE
Contact: Gabrielle Bindursky
(337) 482-2278
(337) 482-1368
gxb737@louisiana.edu
Experience Paris at the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum
Paris: Photographs by Eugene Atgèt and Christopher Rauschenberg
Lafayette, 2006 - This spring the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum will present an exhibition that captures the beauty of Paris through the lenses of two photographers working a century apart. Paris: Photographs by Eugene Atgèt and Christopher Rauschenberg features a survey of the George Eastman House's exemplary holdings of the work of Eugene Atgèt alongside a contemporary interpretation of the project by artist, Christopher Rauschenberg. This exhibition includes 60 photographs on view at the Museum through April 14, 2007.
Franco- American relations have spanned two centuries and the friendship has produced a cultural richness evident in figures like Alexis de Tocqueville, Benjamin Franklin, and Jean-Jacque Audubon and the Statue of Liberty. This exhibition is another example of the ongoing cultural and intellectual exchange. Paris: Photographs by Eugene Atgèt and Christopher Rauschenberg is presented as part of the 2007 celebration commemorating the 250th anniversary of the birth of our community's namesake, the Marquis de La Fayette.
Eugene Atgèt and Christopher Rauschenberg, born nearly 100 years apart, both captured the eternal essence of Paris in two very different eras.
Eugene Atgèt (French, 1857-1927) came to Paris in order to document the city before its inevitable disappearance. During Napoleon III's reign as Emperor of France he called for “la transformation de la Ville” to make way for a modernized Paris that he envisioned. This transformation was characterized by flattening large sections of the city and replacing many of the winding streets to make way for the broad tree-lined boulevards that Paris is known and loved for today. Atgèt captured the city in its historical form before and during the renovation process. Atgèt first began to photograph Paris in 1898. It is Atgèt's photography that bridges the gap between Paris as the romantic and historic city and Paris's transformation into modernity.
American-born photographer, Christopher Rauschenberg, traveled to Paris in the late 1990s to photograph 500 of the scenes that Atgèt admired and captured including street scenes, architectural details, and landscapes. Rauschenberg's Paris photography does not exactly replicate the exact images of Atgèt.
Instead, Rauschenberg wanted to evoke the aesthetic and emotional tone and to pay homage to his predecessor. Like Atgèt's documentation of Paris through photography, Rauschenberg also creates an artistic study of the city only he does so in a modern era.
Paris: Photographs by Eugene Atgèt and Christopher Rauschenberg is a “New Histories” exhibition, organized jointly by George Eastman House and the International Center of Photography in New York City. The exhibition is curated by Alison Nordstrom, George Eastman House's curator of Photographs, and is supported by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.
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The Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum in Lafayette, Louisiana is Acadiana's architectural landmark and the largest art museum on the gulf coast between Houston and New Orleans. The Museum features a variety of changing exhibitions and a continuing schedule of lectures and programs. Come enjoy the Museum and the tranquil beauty of University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus and just blocks away from the galleries, shops, and famous restaurants of downtown Lafayette and the Oil CenterHours and Admission:
Tuesday –Saturday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Sunday and Monday- Closed
General Information :
Please visit museum.louisiana.edu or call 337-482-2278
Museum
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