Exhibition Text
After his important retrospective at the Kunsmuseum Wolfburg last spring and honoured at the documenta X, KICKEN II now shows works by Ed van der Elsken from his cycle "love on the left bank". At twenty-five, the Dutch photographer arrived in Paris. There, over the course of 1951, he documents pale girls, cool guys and modern vagabonds of the dark cafes and jazz clubs of bohemia. With the camera at the centre of the existential life-style at that time, the result of those
days and nights is the fictional photo-novel 'Love in Saint Germain des Prés', the sad story of Ann and Manuel. This book project by van der Elsken, constructed like films of the Nouvelle Vogue, became for Paris what 'The Arnericans' by Robert Frank had been for the USA: an image of the feeling of life of this epoch.
Glenn D. Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, recently called Lee Friedlander, born in 1934, 'a giant in his field '. Last December, the MoMA acquired 1000 works from the artist. They will be exhibited on the occasion of the opening of the museum's new building in 2002. In anticipation, KICKEN BERLIN will dedicate an exhibition to this American photographer. The show will give an overview of his entire artistic productivity.
