Luigi Ghirri

‘A Personal Atlas’

Luigi Ghirri‘A Personal Atlas’

Austin / Desmond Fine Art presents an online exhibition of the seminal Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri, the second exhibition of his photographs at the gallery.

Ghirri’s work formed a lifelong critical investigation into seeing and understanding the contemporary world. Incensed by the ‘endless supermarket of the outside world’ and seeking a radical change in photography free from the constraints of formal aesthetics, Ghirri sought a ‘new landscape’ and to speak of what really existed.

His subject matter was the reality in which he found himself, the everyday objects and landscapes of suburbia in Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy. ‘the subjects are…things found in our ordinary field of vision – images that we are used to looking at passively. Isolated from the reality which surrounds them and presented in a photograph as part of a different discourse, these images become laden with new meaning’. Luigi Ghirri, Cardboard Landscapes, 1973 in Luigi Ghirri The Complete Essays 1973-1991, Mack 2016

The result is modern Italy without the clichés and idealism, not so much photographs but maps and charts: Ghirri’s ‘personal atlas’.

The exhibition includes vintage prints from a number of Ghirri’s series including his landmark series Kodachrome 1970-1978.

Recent solo exhibition include: Luigi Ghirri The Map and the Territory, Museum Folkwang, Essen, travelling to: Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; Jeu de Paume, Paris (2019); Luigi Ghirri – Thinking Through Images, MAXXI, Rome (2013); Ghirri’s work was included in the Venice Biennale in 2011 and 2013.

Quimper, 1972Series: Kodachrome1977C-print12.5 x 17.4 cmSigned and dated lower rightFrom the Portfolio Luigi Ghirri per Cantergiani & C. Assicurazioni spa - Modena, printed in an edition of 300.

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 8,000

Sassuolo, 19731977C-print12.5 x 17.4 cmSignedFrom the Portfolio Luigi Ghirri per Cantergiani & C. Assicurazioni spa - Modena, printed in an edition of 300.

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 8,000

Modena, 1973Series: Kodachrome 1977C-print 12.5 x 17.5 cmSigned and datedFrom the Portfolio Luigi Ghirri per Cantergiani & C. Assicurazioni spa - Modena, printed in edition of 300.

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 8,000

Reggio Emilia, 1973Series: Kodachrome 1977C-print12.5 x 17.4 cmSigned and datedFrom the Portfolio Luigi Ghirri per Cantergiani & C. Assicurazioni spa – Modena, printed in edition of 300

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 12,000

Lido di Spina, 1974Series: Kodachrome 1977C-print 12.5 x 17.5 cm Signed and datedFrom the Portfolio Luigi Ghirri per Cantergiani & C. Assicurazioni spa - Modena, printed in edition of 300

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 12,000

Modena, 1978Series: Still life1978 C-print24 x 36.2 cm Signed and dated

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 14,000

Roma Eur, 1982Series: Paesaggio Italiano1982C-print47.1 x 32 cmSigned, dated and titled

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 15,000

Cadecoppi, 1985Series: Il profilo delle nuvole; Paesaggio Italiano1985 C-print28.6 x 45.7 cm

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 25,000

Fidenza 1985Series: Esplorazioni sulla via Emilia; Il profilo delle nuvole1985 C-print 23 x 44.8 cm

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 25,000

Formigine, 1988Series: Paesaggio italiano; Il profilo delle nuvole1988 C-print36 x 49.3 cm

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 25,000

Reggio Emilia, 1988Series: Galleria Parmeggiani1988C-print24 x 30 cm

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 12,000

Valli Grandi Veronesi, 1988-‘89Series: Il profilo delle nuvole1988-’89 C-print36 x 49.1 cm

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 20,000

Montagnana, 1989 Series: Il profilo delle nuvole1989C-print34.5 x 45 cm

Accompanied by a certificate from the Archivio Luigi Ghirri

£ 20,000

Luigi Ghirri‘A Personal Atlas’

Online exhibition22 June - 7 August 2020

www.austindesmond.com gallery@austindesmond.com+44(0)20 7242 4443

Austin / Desmond Fine Art