Pierre Leguillon
Diane Arbus: A Printed Retrospective, 1960-1971
At the end of 2008, Pierre Leguillon presented at KADIST, Paris the first retrospective of the works of Diane Arbus (1923-1971) organized in France since 1980, bringing together all the images commissioned to the New York photographer by the Anglo-American press in the 1960s. This exhibition, destined to tour in various locations, presents the original pages of the magazines, including “Harper’s Bazaar”, “Esquire”, “Nova” and “The Sunday Times Magazine”. As Pierre Leguillon states: “The mythology surrounding Diane Arbus’ character is willingly set aside to offer a more neutral point of view on a more unfamiliar part of her work, although it was mass-distributed.” Many of the characters portrayed in these commissioned works seem less sensational at first glance than the “freaks” that made Diane Arbus’ work so famous, since the retrospective MOMA organized in 1973 in New York, two years after her suicide. And yet, “leafing through” all her contributions for the press, the Diane Arbus’ method, her installing the model in an environment in such a particular way, emerges obviously. Long sitting sessions, sometimes repeated, were destined to allow the model to “let go”, while then never stopped fixing the camera, straight forward. It is no doubt their rigorous construction that enables these images, still, today, to be contemporary.
Pierre Leguillon is an artist who has developed projects as a curator and critic since the beginning of the 1990s, by creating a single page review, 'Sommaire' (35 issues between 1991 and 1996), then by collaborating to 'Journal des Arts', and 'Art press' (Special issue « Oublier l'exposition » in 2000), then to 'Purple' (column « Calme plat » about printed objects from 2002 to 2004). In parallel, he has photographed many exhibitions, which he started reenacting in 1993 in slideshows, their content being each augmented and renewed for each session. In addition, he has often produced accompanying objects for these events.
Since October 2008, he has opened in Bordeaux, at the Capc, a franchise of « La promesse de l'écran » (« The promise of the screen »), a screening space initiated in Paris in 2007.
Pierre Leguillon was born in 1969, in Nogent-sur-Marne, France. He lives and works in Paris.