Thursday, April 26, 2012

Hoppé is the Leibovitz of the early 20th century




In June MGA hosts Emil Otto Hoppé:  society, studio, and street celebrating the work of a pivotal figure in photography in the first half of the twentieth century.

Cecil Beaton called him ‘The Master’; during the 1920s, he was the most famous photographer in the world. Now El Mundo applauds Hoppe's exhibition at MAPFRE in Madrid 

During the 1920s and 30s, Hoppé was one of Europe’s most sought-after photographers. His studio in South Kensington was a magnet for the rich and famous, from dancers to film stars and from royalty to leading writers and artists.

Hoppé photographed the most famous cultural identities of the era.  This exhibition features remarkable portraits of most of the leading social and cultural figures of the period, including King George V and Queen Elizabeth, Albert Einstein, Fritz Lang, Paul Robeson, and Benito Mussolini.

Many of Hoppé’s subjects included major literary figures. George Bernard Shaw, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, AA Milne, Ezra Pound, Vita Sackville West, Anita Loos, Somerset Maugham, Henry James,  Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy all sat for Hoppé. The artists Jacob Epstein, Marinetti, Marsden Hartley, Käthe Kollwitz and dancers Margot Fonteyn, Martha Graham and Nijinsky also had their portraits taken by Hoppé. 

The works of Emil Otto Hoppé come to Melbourne for the first time in an exhibition at MGA from 9 June to 29 July 2012.

Drawn from the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, London and the EO Hoppé Archive in Pasadena, California.



image:Emil Otto Hoppé
Ezra Pound  1918
gelatin-silver print




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