Organizer: Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
Opening: 6th March 2021
Duration: 6th March 2021-2nd May 2021 (Closed on Mondays)
Location: 155A Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Support: CIPA Gallery, Yingshang Photography Book Archive
Curator: Jin Mu
Artists: Robert Frank, Chen Ronghui, Han Lei, Huang Qingjun, Lu Heng, Luo Dan, Mo Yi, Birdhead, Wang Yishu, Wei Lai, Yao Yao, Zeng Han, Zhou Qiang, Zhu Hao
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre is honored to present the exhibition “Resonance—A Tribute to Robert Frank” .This will be the first tour of the exhibition after its appearance at the Jimei×Arles International Photo Festival in Xiamen in 2020. Robert Frank is credited as the one who changed the course of Western photography, and his most noted 83-photo album The Americans is considered a photographic classic that subverted the tradition.Under Frank’s influence, the development of Western photography experienced a turning point, with later generations of photographers breaking new ground in many directions, which constituted the main form of the diversified development of photography in the second half of the 20th century.
This exhibition presents a selection of original photographs by Robert Frank from the collections of CIPA Gallery and the artists Huang Qingjun and RongRong. We have also assembled the works by thirteen Chinese photographers to present along with these precious Frank’s photos. Mo Yi and Han Lei started their photographic creation in the early and mid-1980s respectively. At that time, although the Chinese knew little about Frank, there was a certain resonance with Frank in spirit and temperament in their works. Wei Lai, Lu Heng, Wang Yishu and Huang Qingjun all visited Frank's studio in New York and received recognition and encouragement from Frank during their personal communication. Zeng Han and Luo Dan both conducted the “On the Road” wandering photography, spiritually inspired by Frank and the “Beat Generation”. Chen Ronghui was sponsored by the “Frank Foundation — Sanyu Scholarship Fund” of the Yale University. Like Frank, he has maintained the perspective as a stranger while studying in the US. The photographic works by Zhu Hao, the Birdhead, Yao Yao and Zhou Qiang echo with Frank’s in multiple aspects of the sense of time, order, metaphor and moving image respectively.
These artists have formed a group of individual experimental samples of Chinese photographers in the past forty years since the 1980s, who have embodied a consciousness of photography as an artistic language at different times and stages. When looking at the West, they seek the benchmark with their own local experiences in the history of world art. In the course of valuable explorations, Chinese artists have transcended time and space, and formed complex and delicate vibrations and resonances with Robert Frank in different times and directions. With this exhibition, we will pay tribute to Robert Frank, a pioneer of groundbreaking photography.