Venice hosts the most comprehensive retrospective in Italy of Willy Ronis. 120 vintage images at the Casa dei Tre Oci

On view at the Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice, from September 6, 2018 to January 6, 2019, is the exhibition Willy Ronis. Photographs 1934 - 1998, the most comprehensive Italian retrospective dedicated to the great French photographer Willy Ronis (Paris, 1910 - 2009). An artist with a very long career, Willy Ronis is the protagonist of an exhibition curated by Matthieu Rivallin, which presents the public with 120 vintage images, including a dozen unpublished photographs dedicated to Venice, capable of tracing theentire career of one of the greatest interpreters of twentieth-century photography and protagonist of the French humanist current, along with such masters as Brassaï, Gilles Caron, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Raymond Depardon, Robert Doisneau, Izis, André Kertész, Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Marc Riboud.

Through his images, Willy Ronis developed true micro-narratives built from the characters and situations drawn from the street and everyday life, which led him to ecstasy before reality and to observe the fraternity of peoples. In a certain way, Ronis’ photographs respond to an optimistic view of the human condition, but at the same time the photographer does not conceal its social injustice and is interested in the poorer classes. His sensitivity to the daily struggles for survival in a precarious professional, family and social context reveals that his political convictions, he who was a militant communist, led him to active engagement through the production and dissemination of images of the working-class condition and struggles.

Although most of his most reproduced images were taken in France, since his youth Ronis has not stopped traveling and photographing other places. His style remains intimately linked to his lived experience and his understanding of photography. Indeed, he did not hesitate to recall his life and its political and ideological context. His shots and texts tell of an artist eager first and foremost to explore the world, spying on it in secret, waiting patiently for it to reveal its mysteries to him. In his eyes, it is more important to receive the images than to go looking for them, to absorb the outer world rather than grasp it and, from there, build his story.

The exhibition opens daily, except Tuesday, the closing day, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets: full 12 euros, concessions 10 euros (for students under 26, over 65, concessionary), special concessions 8 euros (for groups over 15 people and every Wednesday for residents and those born in the Metropolitan City of Venice), concessions for Ca’ Foscari and Iuav students 6 euros, concessions for schools 5 euros, free for children under 6, one companion per group, disabled and accompanying persons, two teachers per class, journalists with card, tour guides. Possibility to purchase family ticket: 24 euros for 2 adults and 2 under 14. The exhibition is co-produced by the Jeu de Paume in Paris and the Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine, the French Ministry of Culture with the participation of the Venice Foundation, organized by Civita Tre Venezie.

Pictured: Willy Ronis, Les Amoureux de la Bastille, Paris, 1957. Ministère de la Culture / Médiathèque de l’architecture et du patrimoine /Dist RMN-GP © Donation Willy Ronis

Venice hosts the most comprehensive retrospective in Italy of Willy Ronis. 120 vintage images at the Casa dei Tre Oci

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.