Elliott Erwitt's photographs of being family at Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi

From March 4 to June 11, 2023, the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi hosts the exhibition Elliott Erwitt. Family, curated by Biba Giacchetti, produced by Next Exhibition, in collaboration with SUDEST 57 and Associazione Culturale Dreams. The curator asked one of the most important masters of photography to create a personal and public, historical and contemporary, serious and at the same time ironic album that would address the theme of family in a cross-cutting way.

Thus, the photographs that in the very long career of Erwitt, now 94, have best described and represented all facets of the concept ofbeing family will be on display. For nothing is more absolute and relative, changing, universal and equally particular as the theme of family, dealing with genetics, the social, law, safety, protection and abuse, happiness and sadness.

The shots exhibited in the ancient kitchens of the Palazzina di Caccia were personally selected by the photographer and with the aim of transversally telling seventy years of family history and its infinite intimate and social facets.

Instants from the lives of the powerful of the earth, such as Jackie at JFK’s funeral, are offered indifferently to the viewer, alongside intimate scenes such as the mother gazing raptly at her newborn child, who is then Ellen, the photographer’s eldest daughter.

Strictly black and white glimpses from around the world. From Provence, France, an adult carrying a child, on a bicycle, on a tree-lined avenue that seems to have no end, a famous and much-loved image. From Ireland two elderly men, back to back, enjoy the sea breeze, bent and weighed down by age, but together. From China a little boy helps his mother push a cart full of poor things. From the United States the star of the exhibition’s poster: an elegant lady, dressed in overcoat and high boots, depicted walking a funny little tiny dog on one side and an equally imposing dog on the other; an iconic image of Erwitt: Felix Gladys and Rover.

Erwitt’s figure is expressed in this exhibition on a subject that has certainly been instrumental in his personal life, given his four marriages, six children and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren still in the making.

Biba Giacchetti explains, “As always, Elliott Erwitt wanted to break out of the classical canons and develop the concept of family in a free and provocative way. Romantic images alternate with images of denunciation (such as that of the Ku Klux Klan), up to the well-known irony that wants to absolve those who elect as a favorite member of their family the most beloved animal, whether a dog, a pig or a horse, and thus celebrate with seriousness and a smile, the universal feeling that binds us to those we love.”

The exhibition will be open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Closed Mondays.

For all info: www.elliotterwitt.it

Image: Elliott Erwitt, USA, New York City, 1974

Elliott Erwitt's photographs of being family at Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi

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