Jeannette Montgomery Barron, Scene: Photographs of the 1980’s New York Art Scene, Collezione Maramotti, Italy.

Jeannette Montgomery Barron explores the intense world of the New York art scene in the 1980s. Following her own journey to the city and her development as a photographer, Barron was part of a scene at an exciting cultural crossroads. For the first time young artists were becoming real stars and artistic success became linked to the concept of celebrity.

Barron’s photographs are a gallery of personalities from this moment in time: revealing the transgressive milieu that was growning in clubs such as Area, Odeon and Warhol’s Factory. Her work conveys the concept of cult and investigates what made these figures such icons in the world of art, fashion and design. In this exhibition, Collezione Maramotti presents a selection of Montgomery Barron’s portraits alongside artists whose works represent an important core of the collection. Focusing on American art from the 1980s and 1990s, visitors can encounter life-size portraits and delve into the relationships between various groups during the period from Graffitism to Neo-expressionism to New Geometry.

The exhibition is accompanied by a special book in the form of a diary: this text collects together testimonies of those years and notes from Montgomery Barron of shots taken in the studios, houses and clubs that she frequented. Despite it’s minimalist style, the diary reveals a personal insight into that unique period in history from one who experienced it first-hand. The work on show includes portraits of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sandro Chia, Moira Dryer, Fischli & Weiss, Jenny Holzer, Alex Katz, Barbara Kruger, Robert Mapplethorpe, McDermott & McGough, Cindy Sherman, Starn Twins, Philip Taaffe, Rigoberto Torres and Andy Warhol.

Jeannette Montgomery Barron, Scene: Photographs of the 1980’s New York Art Scene, extended until 28 September, Collezione Maramotti, Via Fratelli Cervi 66, 42124 Reggio Emilia – Italy, www.collezionemaramotti.org.

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Credit:
1. David Salle, studio, NYC, 1983 © Jeannette Montgomery Barron