Armoire a glace dons un hotel de posse, rue Quincampoix (Mirrored wardrobe in a brothel, Rue Quincampoix), 1932
gelatin silver print
image: 13 3/ 4 x 10 13/16 in. / 34.9 x 27.5 cm
sheet: 16 x 12 in. / 40.6 x 30.6 cm
recto: signed, lower right
verso: stamps: 'Copyright © by BRASSAl 19 All Rights Reserved'; 'INTERDICTION DE REPRODUIRE SANS AUTORISATION DE L'AUTEUR; 'Tirage de /'Auteur'; inscriptions: 'Armoire a glace .. .'; 'p. 109'; 'pl. 352'; 'PN1052/4'
Au Monocle, un couple (Fat Claude and her Girlfriend at Le Monocle), c. 1932
gelatin silver print
image: 13 3/ 4 x 10 3/8 in. / 34.9 x 26.4 cm
sheet: 15 7 /8 x 11 7 /8 in. / 40.3 x 30.2 cm
recto: signed, lower right
verso: stamps: 'Copyright © by BRASSAI' 1932 All Rights Reserved'; 'Tirage de /'Auteur'; inscriptions: 'Le couple d' homosexuelles 1933'; 'Pl. 437A'; 'PN1228'
Bijou au bar de la Lune, Montmartre (Miss Diamonds, Bar de la Lune, Montmartre), 1932
gelatin silver print
image: 13 1/2 x 10 1/4 in. / 31.8 x 26 cm
sheet: 15 5/8 x 11 1/2 in. / 39.7 x 29.2 cm
recto: signed, lower right
verso: stamps: 'Copyright © by BRASSAI' 19 All Rights Reserved'; 'INTERDICTION DE REPRODUIRE SANS AUTORISATION DE L'AUTEUR; 'Tirage de /'Auteur'; inscriptions: "'Bijou" vers. 1932 au bar de la Lune'; 'Page 86'; 'Pl. 384'; 'PN1208/10'
Chez "Suzy," la presentation (At Suzy's, introductions), c. 1932-33
gelatin silver print
image: 11 1/2 x 8 3/4 in. / 29.2 x 22.2 cm
sheet: 12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm
recto: signed, lower right
verso: stamps: '© COPYRIGHT by BRASSAI' 81, Faubourg St. Jacques PARIS 14eme Tel. 70723.41'; inscriptions: 7'; 'Chez "Suzy"'; 'Pl. 363'; 'Tirage auteur'; 'PN1058/2'
Couple fache au bal des Quatre-Saisons, rue de Lappe, Paris (Lover's Quarrel, Bal de Quatre Saisons, rue de Lappe, Paris), c. 1932
gelatin silver print
image: 11 3/4 x 9 1/4 in. / 29.8 x 23.5 cm
sheet: 15 1/4 x 11 in. / 38.7 x 27.9 cm
recto: signed, lower right
verso: stamps: 'Copyright © by BRASSAl 19 All Rights Reserved:· 'INTERDICTION DE REPRODUIRE SANS AUTORISA TION DE L 'AUTEUR; Ti rage de /'Auteur'; inscriptions: 'Pl. 250:· 'page 78'; 'PN1639'
Au Monocle, Jeune invertie, 1932
gelatin silver print
image: 14 3/16 x 10 3/ 4 in. / 36 x 27.3 cm
sheet: 15 1/8 x 11 5/8 in. / 38.4 x 29.5 cm
recto: signed, lower right
verso: stamps: 'Copyright © by BRASSAI'; 'INTERDICTION DE REPRODUIRE SANS AUTORISATION DE L'AUTEUR; 'Tirage de /'Auteur'; inscriptions: 'Page 160'; 'Pl. 432'; 'PN1641/2'
Fille de joie jouant au billard russe, boulevard Rochechouart, Montmartre, 1932
gelatin silver print
image 14 1/4 x 10 3/4 in. / 36.2 x 27.3 cm
sheet: 15 3/ 4 x 11 3/ 4 in. / 40 x 29.9 cm
recto: signed, lower right
verso: stamps: 'Copyright © by BRASSAI'; 'Tirage de /'Auteur'; inscriptions: 'La Fi/le au bi/lard Russe vers 1932'; '1932 all rights reserved'; 'pl. 401'; 'page 81'; 'PN1204/16'
Fille de joie, quartier Italie, 1932
gelatin silver print
image: 15 3/8 x 11 1/8 in. / 39.1 x 28.3 cm
sheet: 15 3/8 x 11 1/8 in. / 39.1 x 28.3 cm
verso: signed; stamps: '© COPYRIGHT by BRASSAl 81, Faubourg St. Jacques PARIS 14eme Tel. 707.23.41'; 'Tirage de /'Auteur'; 'INTERDICTION DE REPRODUIRE SANS AUTORISA TION DE L'AUTEUR'; 'PHOTOGRAPHIE ORIG/NALE'; inscriptions: 'Fi/le de joie quartier ltalie'; 'Pl. 333'; 'page 92'
Le parvis de Notre-Dame, 1932
gelatin silver print, high gloss
image: 9 1/8 x 6 5/8 in. / 23.2 x 16.8 cm
sheet: 9 1/8 x 6 5/8 in. / 23.2 x 16.8 cm
verso: signed; stamps: 'BRASSAI 81, RUE DU FAUBrg St JACQUES PARIS X/Ve TELEPH. [ ... } PORT-ROYAL 23-41'; Tirage de /'Auteur'; 'BRASSAi' 81, RUE DU FAUBg St JACQUES PARIS-X/Ve PORT-ROYAL 23-41'; inscriptions: 'Parvis de Notre Dame'; 'Le PARViS de Notre-Dame 1932'; 'PN3506'; '19'; 'N. 19'
Un couple au bal Magic-City, 1931-1933
gelatin silver print, high gloss
image: 11 1/2 x 8 5/8 iin. / 29.2 x 21.9 cm
sheet: 11 1/2 x 8 5/8 in. / 29.2 x 21.9 cm
verso: signed; stamps: 'BRASSAI 81, Rue du Faub.-St-Jacques PARIS-X/Ve - PORt-Roya/ 23-41'; '© COPYRIGHT by BRASSAl 81, Faubourg St. Jacques PARIS 14eme Tel. 707.23.41'; 'Tirage de /'Auteur'; inscriptions: '136'; 'Pl. 441'; 'PN1089/1'
Vue plongeante sur la scene des Folies-Bergere, 1932
gelatin silver print
image: 11 1/2 x 9 1/ 4 in. / 29.2 x 23.5 cm
sheet: 11 1/2 x 9 1/ 4 in. / 29.2 x 23.5 cm
verso: signed; stamps: '© COPYRIGHT by BRASSAl 81, Faubourg St. Jacques PARIS 14eme Tel. 707.23.41'; 'PHOTOGRAPHIE ORIG/NALE'; 'INTERDICTION DE REPRODUIRE SANS AUTORISA TION DE L'AUTEUR'; 'Tirage de /'Auteur'; inscriptions: 'Folies-Bergere vue plongeante sur la scene 1932 Brassai"'; 'Pl. 707; 'page 748'; 'PN1077/2'
Brassaï, Monsieur B. revêtu d’un kimono à brocart d’or (Mr. B in a kimono with gold brocade), 1931
Born Gyula Halász, Brassaï (1899-1984) took his moniker from his hometown of Brassó, Transylvania, in present-day Hungary. He studied painting and sculpture in Budapest and Berlin before joining the Austro-Hungarian army, where he served until the end of the First World War. After his tenure in the army, he was drawn to Paris, where he had lived as a child while his father taught at the Sorbonne. Upon his return to the city in 1924, Brassaï gravitated towards the Montparnasse neighborhood where he began working as a painter and journalist. It was during this time that he met artists such as Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. Within the next decade, he realized his love for the photographic medium and began documenting Paris at night. His explorations of the city brought him into contact with prostitutes, madams, and pleasure-seekers, whose photographs were compiled in to his 1933 publication Paris de Nuit.
With Paris offering endless promenades and an inexhaustible cast of intriguing characters, Brassaï was able to capture seemingly average citizens from a point of view that was anything but mundane. His nighttime photos have a grainy texture, and frequently lack the quality of a professional photograph. He preferred to shoot in this way because he believed that it reflected the darkness and peculiar personalities he encountered prowling the streets and bistros of nocturnal Paris. Brassaï’s subsequent book Voluptés de Paris was published in 1935 and gave the artist international credibility.
During the German occupation in 1940, Brassaï headed to southern France, only to return to Paris to rescue negatives he had hidden there. His unwavering dedication to his art earned him many awards and honors during his lifetime, including Most Original Film at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival and the Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Legion d’honneur in 1976. It was that same year that Brassaï’s photographs were first exhibited by Marlborough New York, followed by three additional exhibitions devoted to the artist between the Marlborough New York and Marlborough Fine Art London in 1979, 1982, and 1984. His photographs would later serve as the backdrop for Jacques Prévert’s ballet, Le Rendez-vous. Since his death in 1984, several large scale retrospectives have been held in honor of his work, including Brassaï: The Eye of Paris curated by Anne Wilkes Tucker, Richard Howard, and Avis Berman (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, December 6, 1998 - February 28, 1999; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, April 13, - July 4, 1999; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., October 17, 1999 - January 16, 2000), and Brassaï, curated by Peter Galassi (Fundación MAPFRE, Barcelona, Spain, Feburary 20 - May 13, 2018)
Donald Kuspit reviews Marlborough New York's Brassaï exhibition in the May Issue of Artforum.
Marlborough New York's Brassaï exhibition is featured in The Art Newspaper's three exhibitions to see in New York this weekend: from Eugene Von Bruenchenhein’s rapturous paintings to Brassaï’s Parisian underground.
Marlborough is pleased to publish a catalog to accompany its winter exhibition of Brassaï. This exhibition will be the first time in nearly forty years that Marlborough will showcase Brassaï’s photography. Anne Wilkes Tucker, author of Brassaï: The Eye of Paris (Museum of Fine Arts Houston, 1999), has contributed a new essay for a fully illustrated publication that will accompany the exhibition.
