Naked torsos, ruined landscapes and rigid bodies with lost looks. The frames of the photos by the German Herbert List (1903-1975) acquire a new meaning together with the classic sculptures of Greco-Roman antiquity in the J. Bagot gallery in Barcelona. These two art forms, seemingly disparate, prove to be deeply interconnected in Herbert List and the Classical Ideal, the exhibition that reveals one of the greatest sources of inspiration in the German photographer’s work. Some 43 photographs taken in the 20th century dialogue in unexpected harmony with 38 archaeological pieces dating from the 6th century BC. C to IV d. c.
The relationship between photographs and archaeological pieces in some cases is very evident. The bodies portrayed in black and white seem to have left their frames to take on dimension and reveal, through the sculptures, the hidden angles within the photograph. In others, it is necessary to focus your gaze on specific details of the sculptures to place them in List’s photographic frames. One of the most notable pieces in the exhibition is a Roman bust of Emperor Antoninus Pius made in the 1st century AD, which belonged to the private collection of artist Andy Warhol. It is located next to two photographs by List, that of a man reclining on a piece of art (Rolf reclining on a bust, 1949) and a close-up of a young man looking at the camera (Manfred
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Ars Historica gallery in Madrid and the Barcelona gallery that exhibits it, J. Bagot, with the participation of the Herbert List Estate in Hamburg. Manuel Fuentenebro, the creator of the exhibition and director of Ars Historica Madrid, assures that there has not been any similar exhibition by the German artist, neither in Barcelona nor in the world. “We began to see that the photographs combined very well with the archaeological pieces,” explains Fuentenebro, who then contacted the photographer’s foundation in Hamburg to tell them about the project. “We sent them photographs of some combinations we had made and the idea caught their attention.”
The exhibition was scheduled to end on October 31 but, due to the good response it has had from the public, it will remain open until November 20. Twenty years after the two major retrospective exhibitions of the German artist that took place in Barcelona and Valencia, Herbert List and the Classical Ideal brings the work of the German photographer to the Catalan capital once again in an unprecedented format. An invitation to contemplate how modernity and antiquity intertwine in a timeless dance of artistic expression and visual beauty.
