Luigi Ghirri, Bastia (1976), via Matthew Marks Gallery

In 1978, photographer Luigi Ghirri first published his manifesto on avant-garde photography, Kodachrome.  Locating the image as both a problem and solution in the increasingly complex interrelations of image, identity and object created through a technologically advancing world, the book sought to use the camera as it was, a machine for generating reproductions, to, in his words “be able finally to distinguish the precise identity of man, things, life, from the image of man, things, and life.” Recognizing the artist’s immense contributions to both photography and conceptual thought, Matthew Marks Gallery is currently hosting a show of 25 of Ghirri’s photographs in New York City, taken from the artist’s landmark book.

Luigi Ghirri, Urbino (1975), via Matthew Marks Gallery

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René Magritte, La Carte d’après Nature, numèro spècial (January 1954). All images via Matthew Marks

Matthew Marks is currently exhibiting “La Carte D’Aprés Nature” curated by gallery-represented artist Thomas Demand. It features three rarely-seen paintings by René Magritte supplemented by sculptures, photographs, and films by established and emerging artists that explore themes similar to the late Surrealist’s. Demand has pulled pieces from all over the world, from varying disciplines and times, that speak of Magritte’s “carte d’aprés nature,” or “map of nature.” Demand tells the Observer, “I wanted there to be the feeling of something strange.”

René Magritte, Le grand style (The Great Style) (1951)

More story and images after the jump…

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