At the beginning of the new year, the Fondation Beyeler is presenting works by Canadian artist Jeff Wall (*1946) in an extensive solo exhibition. This is Wall's first exhibition in Switzerland for almost two decades. Wall, who made a significant contribution to establishing photography as an independent art form, is one of its most important representatives today.
With over 50 works from five decades, the exhibition presents the entire spectrum of the artist's groundbreaking oeuvre, from his iconic large-format slides in light boxes to the large-format black-and-white photographs and inkjet color prints. The exhibition also pays particular attention to works from the last two decades, including photographs that are on public display for the first time ever. The exhibition has been created in close collaboration with the artist. In his works, Jeff Wall explores the boundaries between fact and fiction, coincidence and construction. Since the mid-1970s, he has been exploring ways to expand the artistic possibilities of photography. Wall describes his work as "cinematography", as he sees film as a model for creative freedom and inventiveness, which has faded into the background in the prevailing photography defined as "documentary". Many of his photographs are constructed images that require extensive planning and preparation, collaboration with actors and actresses and post-production.
Jeff Wall composes images that deviate from the idea that photography is first and foremost a faithful representation of reality. The exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler opens in the foyer with a juxtaposition of two iconic works from 1999: Morning Cleaning, Mies van der Rohe Foundation, Barcelona shows the early morning cleaning work that is carried out in the famous pavilion before visitors arrive. A cleaner is cleaning the large windows on the garden side of the pavilion, a moment that normally remains hidden from the view of visitors. A Donkey in Blackpool (1999) provides a glimpse into a simple stable in which a donkey can be seen resting. In the dialog between the two pictures, very different social and cultural worlds come together, while at the same time drawing attention to their similarities - humans and animals both have a deep relationship with the spaces in which they reside. The exhibition is designed to unfold a sequence of such juxtapositions, creating resonances between themes, techniques and genres.
Jeff Wall, A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai), 1993, large slide in light box, Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland © Jeff Wall
Most of Wall's more recent works are on display in the exhibition, mostly arranged to contrast with older paintings. Fallen rider (2022), an image of a woman who has just been thrown from her horse, hangs opposite War game (2007), in which three boys, apparently captured during a fighting game, lie flat on the ground in an improvised prison while another child guards them. In Parent child (2019), a little girl has also stretched out on the ground, here now on a sidewalk in the soft shade of a tree, watched by a man who is probably her father. Like film stills, Wall's pictures seem to capture a moment in an event; the before and after remain hidden. On the adjacent wall hangs Maquette for a monument to the contemplation of the possibility of mending a hole in a sock (2023), which shows an elderly woman lost in thought. She is holding a sewing needle in her hand and looking at a hole in the worn heel of a purple sock. The mending woman appears unreal, like an apparition questioning people's ability and will to repair what has been worn, overused or damaged.
The exhibition is curated by Martin Schwander, Curator at Large, Fondation Beyeler, with the collaboration of Charlotte Sarrazin, Associate Curator.
January 28 to April 21, 2024
www.fondationbeyeler.ch
