| | | |  | | | Val Telberg
Untitled (Rebellion Call), c. 1940-50
© Estate Val Telberg / Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris | | | Val Telberg » An American Surrealist in Paris | | | | | | | 12 September – 10 November 2024 | | | Opening: Wednesday, 18 September, 6pm
| | |  | | | | | | | | | |  | | | Man Ray
Revolving Doors, The meeting, 1973
Wool tapestry, weaved under the artist's supervision by
Frédérique Bachellerie et Peter Schönwald from Atelier 3
© Man Ray Trust, ADAGP
Courtesy Atelier 3 / Les Douches la Galerie, Paris | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |  | | | Val Telberg
Prof le of Anne, c. 1953
Vintage gelatin silver print, printed by the artist
© Estate Val Telberg / Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris | | | | | | An American Surrealist in Paris | | | | 12 September – 10 November 2024 | | | | Opening: Wednesday, 18 September, 6pm | | | Exhibition organized as part of the partnership between
the CPGA, the Centre Pompidou and the Association André Breton. | | | | | |  | | | Val Telberg
Sabrina’s Awakening, c. 1940-50
Vintage gelatin silver print, printed by the artist
© Estate Val Telberg / Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris | | | | | | 2024 will mark the centenary of one of the most fascinating and influential artistic movements of the 20th century. A hundred years ago, indeed, André Breton published the Surrealist Manifesto. The Centre Pompidou, which is preparing to celebrate this anniversary with a major exhibition, "Le Surréalisme d’abord et toujours"", has launched a call for projects - "A Surrealist Season in Paris" - to which Les Douches la Galerie has decided to respond.
This will be an opportunity for the public to (re)discover a unique experimental work, composed mainly of superimposed images of characters in motion that present a dreamlike weightlessness associated with surrealism. The works of Val Telberg, who also created paintings, sculptures, and films, are part of numerous international public collections, including that of the Centre Pompidou. Four of his photomontages were, in fact, exhibited during the collective exhibition "Corps à Corps – Histoire(s) de la photographie".
Curator: Françoise Morin | | | | | |  | | | Val Telberg
Yaddo Period, c. 1953-54
Vintage gelatin silver print, printed by the artist
© Estate Val Telberg / Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris | | | | | | Val Telberg
Born to Finnish-Russian parents in Moscow on February 14, 1910, Vladimir Telberg von Teleheim, who signs his name as Val Telberg in his artistic work, was raised in northern China. He attended British, French, Japanese, and American schools in various Chinese cities, as well as in Japan and Korea. In 1928, he received a scholarship to attend Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio, where he earned a degree in chemistry in 1932. He immediately returned to China to engage in various activities, including book publishing and selling pharmaceutical products. The Second Sino-Japanese War prompted Val Telberg to return to the United States in 1938, settling in New York. Unable to enlist in the American army due to physical fitness, he moved to an isolated farm in New Jersey in 1941, where he spent an entire year painting, despite never having seriously considered becoming an artist.
In 1942, he began taking painting classes at the Art Students League of New York, where he was introduced to Surrealism and experimental cinema. To earn a living, he became an advertisement salesman, a restaurateur, and worked in a laboratory developing films for nightclub cameramen. In 1944, Val Telberg moved to Florida, where he met his future first wife, Kathleen Lambing (better known as Kathleen Haven).
His career as a photographer truly began upon his return to New York in 1945, in collaboration with his wife. Encouraged by Morris Kantor, his professor at the Art Students League, to explore new directions in photography, he bought his first enlarger and began developing combined images from multiple negatives. In 1948, the Brooklyn Museum of Art offered him the first retrospective of his photomontages, and his talent was showcased in the major historical exhibition organized by Edward Steichen at the MoMA, "In and Out of Focus: A Survey of Today’s Photography".
In 1949, he left for Europe, where he experimented with 16mm film editing at Oxford University. He also lived for some time in Paris. In 1952, he returned to New York and illustrated Anaïs Nin’s "House of Incest". In 1966, Val Telberg began working on large-scale, scroll-like photographs with multiple images. Two years later, he moved to Long Island, where for nearly a decade, he created non-objective cement sculptures and avant-garde multimedia productions with his second wife, the dancer Lelia Katayen. York. | | | | | |  | | | Val Telberg
Untitled, c. 1948
Vintage gelatin silver print, printed by the artist
© Estate Val Telberg / Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris | | | | | | Val Telberg’s works are part of numerous American public collections, including those of the MoMA, the MET, and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Getty Museum and LACMA in Los Angeles, and the SF MoMA in San Francisco, which dedicated a retrospective to him in 1983. Les Douches la Galerie has showcased his photos in three group exhibitions between 2014 and 2022, while the Centre Pompidou recently acquired four of his works and displayed them in the exhibition Corps à Corps – Histoire(s) de la photographie, which took place from September 2023 to March 2024.
Val Telberg passed away in April 1995, at the age of 85, in Southampton, New York. | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |  | | | Man Ray
Rayogram, c. 1928
Gelatin silver print mounted on cardboard, printed later c. 1958-60
© Man Ray Trust, ADAGP
Courtesy Les Douches la Galerie, Paris | | | | | | Revolving Doors | | | | 12 September – 10 November 2024 | | | Opening: Wednesday, 18 September, 6pm
| | | "Revolving Doors" is a series of works created by Man Ray early in his career in the United States around 1916-1917, before he moved to Paris in 1921 and became a central figure in the Dada and Surrealist movements.
This series accompanied Man Ray throughout his long career: initially created as a series of colored paper collages around 1916, it was exhibited in New York at the Daniel Gallery in 1919 and later featured in the 1935 edition of the Surrealist magazine Minotaure. The series was reproduced using stencils and published as lithographs in 1926 by Surrealist editions, and again in 1972 by publisher Luciano Anselmino, which served as inspiration for tapestries created in 1973 by Frédérique Bachellerie and Peter Schönwald.
"Revolving Doors" perfectly illustrates Man Ray’s avant-garde and experimental spirit, known for his significant contributions to the Dada and Surrealist movements. Created within the context of the Dada movement, which rejected the artistic and social conventions of the time, Revolving Doors embodies this spirit of rebellion in search of modernism, challenging traditional notions of art and beauty.
The series is characterized by abstract geometric shapes and dynamic compositions. Each piece presents a complex interaction between elements such as circles, straight lines, and angles, evoking both a sense of stability and movement and transformation. These works are not merely aesthetic compositions but also embody deeper ideas about perception and temporality.
By using abstract geometric forms, Man Ray departs from traditional figurative representation. This abstraction invites viewers to freely interpret the works, allowing for a multitude of symbolic meanings.
"Revolving Doors" was influential in the development of abstract art and foreshadowed some of Man Ray’s later explorations in photography and cinema. It showcases the artist’s ability to capture movement and change through abstract and dynamic forms, marking an important milestone in the evolution of modern art in the early 20th century.
Man Ray continues to be celebrated for his boldness and originality, and "Revolving Doors" remains a key work for understanding his artistic approach. This series perfectly illustrates how Man Ray transcended the boundaries of mediums and artistic movements to create works that continue to resonate and inspire today.
Curator: Jonas Tebib | | | | | | unsubscribe here
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