Art Fair
November 6–10, 2024
Grand Palais, Paris
Booth B22
Gagosian is pleased to announce a presentation at Paris Photo 2024 curated by Tyler Mitchell, which places Mitchell’s work in dynamic conversation with iconic photographs by Richard Avedon (1923–2004). In his curatorial debut, Mitchell, a leading voice in contemporary photography, brings his unique vision to this exchange. The presentation is centered on Avedon’s works from the 1960s alongside a selection of Mitchell’s photographs from the past six years, including some not previously exhibited.
For Avedon, the 1960s were a period of deepening social engagement that he would continue through the rest of his life. Central to this era is his groundbreaking collaboration with James Baldwin on Nothing Personal (1964), a book that pairs Baldwin’s words and Avedon’s photographs, offering powerful reflections on race, identity, and society. Avedon’s work from this period holds particular significance for Mitchell, as it reflects how Avedon captured both famous and ordinary individuals, weaving together a complex portrait of the people and cultures that shape American society. The balance between elegance, humanism, and social commentary is also a driving theme in Mitchell’s practice.
Mitchell’s images document those who are defining today’s cultural landscape and represent intimate moments of repose and connection. Through these works, he continues his exploration of Black life, community, and self-determination, echoing Avedon’s effective blending of photographic genres.
Richard Avedon, The Generals of the Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Convention, Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D.C., October 15, 1963 © The Richard Avedon Foundation
Tyler Mitchell, Untitled (Communion in a Landscape), 2023 © Tyler Mitchell
Both Avedon and Mitchell use portraiture to explore identity, ritual, and belonging, with a shared interest in the role of dress and ceremony in expressing pride. In Mitchell’s A Glorious Wedding and Blessings to Come (2021), the couple’s poise and the serene setting honor love, family, and traditions. Similarly, Avedon’s Debutante Cotillion series, photographed in Louisiana in 1963, captures the grandeur of Black cotillions, in which the debutantes’ regal attire and sense of pageantry reflect the value of community. Both artists elevate these rituals, showing how traditions serve as powerful markers of identity across generations.
The catalyst for this collaboration was Mitchell’s selection of Avedon’s 1946 mirror self-portrait with James Baldwin to hang in the Avedon 100 centennial exhibition held at Gagosian New York in 2023. That intimate image of their friendship—which began in high school—set the tone for this exchange, in which Mitchell explores how photography tells the stories of those who shape our world.
Download the full press release in English (PDF) or French (PDF)
Gagosian’s booth at Paris Photo 2024. Artwork by Tyler Mitchell © Tyler Mitchell and by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation. Photos: Thomas Lannes
In celebration of the centenary of Richard Avedon’s birth, more than 150 artists, designers, musicians, writers, curators, and representatives of the fashion world were asked to select a photograph by Avedon for an exhibition at Gagosian, New York, and to elaborate on the ways in which image and artist have affected them. We present a sampling of these images and writings.
Brendan Embser reports on his encounter with Tyler Mitchell’s newest series of photographs, addressing their aesthetic motifs and art historical references, while charting the development of these works in relation to the photographer’s earlier projects.
Jake Skeets reflects on Richard Avedon’s series In the American West, focusing on the portrait of his uncle, Benson James.
Tyler Mitchell sat down with Zoé Whitley, director at Chisenhale Gallery in London, for a conversation as part of Frieze Masters Talks and in partnership with Gagosian. The two discussed Mitchell’s first solo presentation in London and with the gallery, Chrysalis, on view earlier this fall at Gagosian, Davies Street, London, and a special commission for Frieze Masters 2022 that reflected on his conceptual and editorial photography practices. His work reinterprets the tropes employed in both the Western canon of portraiture and the contemporary fashion magazine.
Péjú Oshin visits Christine Checinska, senior curator of African and diaspora textiles and fashion at the Victoria & Albert Museum. From her London office, Checinska shares her curatorial insights into the international traveling exhibition Africa Fashion, which originated at the V&A, and the Costume Institute’s current show Superfine: Tailoring Black Style at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The conversation delves into notions of diaspora, memory, homecoming, and the freedoms of being “anti-disciplinary.”
The Summer 2023 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Richard Avedon’s Marilyn Monroe, actor, New York, May 6, 1957 on its cover.
Tyler Mitchell speaks with Antwaun Sargent about Black representation, the diversity of Southern landscapes, and the importance of play in his new series of photographs. The conversation forms part of “Social Works II,” a supplement guest edited by Sargent for the Winter 2021 issue of the Quarterly.
Wyatt Allgeier discusses the 1984 Arion Press edition of John Ashbery’s Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, featuring prints by Richard Avedon, Alex Katz, Elaine and Willem de Kooning, and more.
Picasso biographer Sir John Richardson sits down with Claude Picasso to discuss Claude’s photography, his enjoyment of vintage car racing, and the future of scholarship related to his father, Pablo Picasso.