Appetite for Surrealism. Eli Lotar´s Photography

On February 14, the retrospective exhibition Eli Lotar (1905-1969), organized by the Jeu de Paume with the Centre Pompidou in Paris, opened. The curators Damarice Amao, Clément Chéroux and Pia Viewing set out to give the public a new perspective on Eli Lotar's role in the documentary photography and cinematography of his era, through portraits, urban, industrial and seascapes, taken between 1927 and 1940.

This exhibition brings together over one hundred original prints held in fifteen international collections and institutions, as well as a selection of one hundred documents (books, magazines, letters, negatives, films) considered to be representative of Eli Lotar's work. Organized in five thematic sections, the exhibition does not follow a strictly chronological order.

The first two sections, "Nouvelle Vision" and "Déambulations urbaines", present photographic reportages from the illustrated press. Those interested can thus delve into the world of Lotar, recognized for the uniqueness of his work in the late 1920s. Reproductions of period magazines such as "VU", "L'Art Vivant", "Arts et métiers graphiques", "Jazz", "Bifur", "Variétés" and "Documents" are just some of the many photo-reportages of Lotar at that time in his career. The vintage prints or prints made from the negatives and documents presented in this section compel us to understand the extent of his early notoriety in European avant-garde photography.

Attracted, of course, also by the mirage of cinematography, Lotar worked from the late 1920s to the early 1950s on several documentary film ^productions1. The third section is dedicated to Lotar's social work, where a selection of photographs and films reflect the social and political complexities of the inter-war period. Emphasized here is the stark realism of his series of 34 negatives "Aux Abattoirs de la Vilette" (October 1929) and his collaboration on Terre sans pain (1933), the only documentary film made by Luis Buñuel, which depicts the precarious living conditions in the arid and isolated Hurdes region of Spain. Working with film-makers who were actively and constantly involved in the emergence and development of documentary film has had a strong influence on Lotar's career. After the war, he made Aubervilliers (1945-'46), a poetic documentary about living conditions in the slums of Aubervilliers .

The last two sections of the exhibition pay particular attention to Eli Lotar's artistic and literary "encounters" throughout his life. Unpublished images from his travels are presented, as well as a series of photographs of the "outlandish" portraits of characters from the plays of Alfred Jarry and Antonin Artaud. His collaboration and friendships with various artists, playwrights and poets gave him the opportunity to hone both his artistic and technical skills (in particular the study of light and framing), as did his travels around the Mediterranean with Jacques-Bernard Brunius and Roger Vitrac, his photomontages for plays directed by Alfred Jarry and Antonin Artaud and, last but not least, his collaboration with his friend Alberto Giacometti, for whom Lotar was the ultimate role model.

Eli Lotar's recognition in the foreground of modernism came late, when in the early 1990s a first retrospective was dedicated to him at the Centre Pompidou. Since then, constant advances in the study of surrealism, photography and film from the inter-war period have made it possible to revisit Eli Lotar's work, and today the singularity of his visual trajectory is admired.

Eli Lotar (1905-1969)

February 14 - May 28, 2017, Jeu de Paume, Concorde, Paris

www.jeudepaume.org

NOTE

1 In 1929 he was cinematographer for Le Petit Chaperon Rouge - director Alberto Cavalcanti; in 1929 he was cinematographer for Crabes et Crevettes - director Jean Painlevé and for Caprelles et Pantopodes - director Jean Painlevé; in 1930 he was cinematographer for Zuyderzee - director Joris Ivens; in 1931 he was cinematographer for Prix et Profits - director Yves Allégret and for Voyage aux Cyclades - director Jaques B. Brunius; in 1932 he was cinematographer and co-director for Ténériffe - directed by Yves Allégret and Eli Lotar; in 1932 he was assistant director for Fanny - directed by Marc Allégret and Marcel Pagnol; in 1932 he was cinematographer for L'affaire est dans le sac - directed by Pierre and Jacques Prévert; in 1933, cinematographer for Terre sans Pain (Las Hurdes) - director Luis Buñuel; in 1934, cinematographer for La Pêche à la Baleine - director Lou Bonin; in 1936, director of photography for Partie de Campagne - director Jean Renoir; in 1937, cinematographer for Records 37 - director Jaques B. Brunius and Jean Tarride; in 1939, cinematographer for Violons d'Ingres - director Jaques B. Brunius; in 1946 he was cinematographer for L'Homme - director Gilles Margaritis; and in 1945-'46 he directed Aubervilliers, a documentary selected for the Cannes Film Festival.