Magnum Blog / Surfing the archive: A Contest!

Surfing the archive: A Contest!

The contest: Find an image in the Magnum archive that reminds you of a famous painting. Post your comparisons in the comments section. We'll pick our favorite and send the winner a signed copy of Elliott Erwitt's Art Appreciation. An example: One of the reasons I'm excited to participate in this blog is because it provides an excuse to rummage through the archive. But where to begin? Whether I'm looking for pictures with a computer or a camera, I like to have something specific to look for before the surfing can really start. Tyler Green at Modern Art Notes recently spent a couple of weeks talking about contemporary art and the American flag. One of the images he mentions is Gordon Park's legendary take on American Gothic. This got me searching the Magnum archive for flag pictures. One of the flag images that taps some sort of primal American iconography is the Henri Cartier-Bresson classic of an old woman in Cape Cod. "I felt in her a touch of the strength and robustness of the early American pioneers," he said. In a New York Times article on his American pictures, William Zimmer writes that Cartier-Bresson "is one not to miss a strong, terse symbol." Speaking of the 'skeletal old woman draped in the American Flag,' Zimmer compares her to the allegorical figure in Delacroix's painting, 'Liberty Leading the People.'"

John Vink

Before the competition starts: HCB's lady always seemed closer to madness than to strength and robustness to me... Another perspective I guess...

marcin luczkowski

Oh, no time to immerse in the archive... but there are hundreds photos ... hmmm which should I choose...

I hope the link will work...

http://tinyurl.com/3h8vty

http://tinyurl.com/6c6bgg

Luke

John, she was mad. There was a fellow with HCB that day (or they were on a long road trip together). He came across that woman and while he realised she was completely mad, he ran to get HCB because he knew it would make a strong photo.

pierre yves

Very obvious :

Jean Gaumy's picture in Rouen hospital :

PAR13083

http://tinyurl.com/6pzmyr

and Michael Angelo's La Pieta

John Vink

What's in a banner hey...

Sean

http://tinyurl.com/5sfuyd
http://tinyurl.com/6q7z73

pierre yves

ok, that was too obviou and la pieta is no painting...

I have just found this :

http://tinyurl.com/6gb3wv

PAR206632

which makes me think of Paul Klee's The Legend of the Nile

http://tinyurl.com/6ns4fn

Bob Black

ALEC:

how long is the competition open...i'm on a deadline this week, so no time to scan the archives, though got lots of ideas...

so quickly, an not-so-obvious connection:

Antoine D'agata and Caspar David Friedrich...

Antoine:

http://tinyurl.com/5jozkd

Friedrich:

http://tinyurl.com/5o5fxz

Antoine:

http://tinyurl.com/6cffd6

Freidrich

http://tinyurl.com/5ca9dz

Same can be said with the work of

Antoine and Egon Schiele

Antoine:

http://tinyurl.com/6rv2q7

Schiele:

http://tinyurl.com/6dzuww

Antoine:

Same with Antoine and Francis Bacon:

Antoine:

http://tinyurl.com/5fhysy

BACON:

http://tinyurl.com/5nflpa

Actually, Antoine's work is totally in line with painting....his work about the physical manifestation of time and death...and aint sex and death about that too....

anyway...gotta split...there are lots of photographers work from magnum that match up well with paintings, including your work Alec...same with John vink, dave harvey, anderson, sobol, sarfati, jonas, kouldelka, webb, towell, goldberg, chien-chie, alessandra, majoli, trent, parr, pellegrino, mikhael. etc...shit, it's endless ;))))

ok, gotta split...later in the week, i'll put up other connections, that aren't exclusively Antoine' ;)))))

cheers
b

pierre yves

That would be even more telling if we could superimpose koudelka' picture PAR206632 with hartmann's : NYC20590

Or am I going too far ??

Bob black

my post has just disappeared ....guess it thought i was spamming, with the links....

the Koudelka/Klee connection is pure genius :)))))))))))))))))....

running
b

M. Scott Brauer

Maybe this one of Larry Towell's: http://tinyurl.com/6lv46p ( PAR116198 ) and Christina's World ( http://tinyurl.com/5c5ktm )

By the way, I think the converse of this game is to find the absolute weirdest picture in the archive. My vote for that always goes to this one: http://tinyurl.com/4ru2n3 ( NYC27045 ) or any others from that shoot.

Jorge Perez

Hi, I'm not sure if the author of the blog is really going to see this, but I thought this picture I took some years ago in NYC might be interesting for your flags discussion.

http://tinyurl.com/6ylv7y

Best regards,

marcin luczkowski

My post not loaded too.

Christopher

These two (PAR75029 and PAR132887) remind me of my favorite painting, "The Yellow Scale" by Frantisek Kupka.
http://tinyurl.com/5jmoef

http://tinyurl.com/68q6e7

http://tinyurl.com/6aoxo3

Marcin luczkowski

Ok. Let's start again.

D'Agata - Bacon

http://tinyurl.com/5vrvy4

Francesca

What do you think about Munch's "Der Schrei der Natur" and this Paolo Pellegrin's photo?

http://tinyurl.com/684a8v

Alec Soth

Sorry that I didn't post the deadline. I'd like to wrap up the submissions on Friday. Happy hunting.

Chris Minnick

http://tinyurl.com/6p89pq

'Liberty Leading the People'" - Realistically, I think this Elliott Erwitt image fits.

Nacho Hernandez

A bit obvious, but one favourite of mine in the archive:

Cornell Capa's ballet dancers:
http://tinyurl.com/6zd5fa

and Degas':
http://tinyurl.com/5rhbng

(this is fun)

Alec Soth

Dear All, I guess I've caused the website team a lot of grief with these long URL's. These are being recognized as spam and are creating formatting problems in certain browser. So please just submit:

1) the magnum image number
2) the artist/title of painting (if you want to add a link, please use http://tinyurl.com/ to make it shorter).

Here is my example. I really love Pierre's Koudelka/Klee connection, but how about this instead:

1) PAR206632
2) Lucio Fontana - Concetto Spaziale, Attesa, 1960: http://tinyurl.com/5p9sdj

William

The photograph:
Henri Cartier-Bresson
FRANCE. Sunday on the banks of the River Marne. 1938.
http://tinyurl.com/6ew3a2

The painting:
Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
http://tinyurl.com/5q6jcv

Two very similar scenes, 60 years apart. HCB used film to capture the light, Seurat used little dots of paint. For those into grainy images, pointillism is old school grain...

-William

Alec Soth

Thanks William, I'd considered HCB's Sunday on the Banks too. But then I saw this:

PAR132939

Can I declare myself the winner?

Nacho Hernandez

I always thought that this image would fit in Goya's "desastres de la guerra" (war disasters) series.

1) PAR48491
2) Goya: "Enterrar y callar" (bury and keep quiet) http://tinyurl.com/686otq

William

Wow. Alec, that Herert List photograph is amazing similar visually to the Seurat painting. However, we must remember that there is more to an image that the simple visual elements. Both HCB's Sunday on the Banks and Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte depict Parisians partaking in riverside leisure. List's image was taken in Germany. Contextual similarities are more valuable than visual similarities. Contextual similarities make the comparison of a painting and a photograph with a similar location and similar people doing similar activities an examination of two different time periods, two different mediums, and how those mediums were used to express their time.

Just my opinion, hope it made some type of sense.

-William

lexi

a few:

1) NYC39067
2) Caravaggio's Medusa, 1597: http://tinyurl.com/5tgjq4

1) LON106025
2) Coolidge, A Bold Bluff (Dogs Playing Poker): http://tinyurl.com/56fjpt

1) LON85671
2) Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Monkeys, 1943: http://tinyurl.com/6ls2jn

Nikos Roccos

Photograph:Henri Cartier Bresson:France,Brie,1968,Landscape

Painting:Meindert Hobbema:Avenue Middelharnis (London National Gallery)

Taavi Tatsi

1) Alex Majoli's LON44953 (IRAQ. Baghdad. Drawings found in a school by US Marines after being bombed. April 10 2003.)

and

2) Picasso's Guernica http://tinyurl.com/69taol

Luca

Hy,
here's what i thought immediatly

- PAR65782
- Mantegna: Cristo http://tinyurl.com/6ja22s

and

- LON90944
- Caillebotte: raboteurs http://tinyurl.com/6js2cx

and(sorry for this,i couldnt resist)

- PAR19461
- http://tinyurl.com/6bmkpf

Thanx

mike

Here's a good one. John Vink and Caravaggio:

http://tinyurl.com/5vz5og
PAR258175

Alec Soth

"Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" - The Incredulity of Saint Parr. Brilliant!

John Vink

MIKE IS THE WINNER!!!!

bob black

Ok, I know i'm not Magnum member either.....BUT BUT...that Vink/Caravaggio/Parr belly HAS TO BE THE WINNER...

.and i thought the fricking koudelka/klee was brilliant!!!...

but damn Mike, you gotta be a lecturer at the Sorbonne.....like now brother!!!!!....

following up on the Magnum/Caravaggio connection, though not as fucking brilliant as the Vink/Caravaggio...

how about Kalvar (of beloved Dave Harvey) and Caravaggio

Harvey, as sleeping Cupid: PAR238619

Sleeping Cupid as by Caravaggio: http://tiny.cc/lZmPs

Richard Payne

Raymond Depardon's paint like photograph of cows by the river in Villefranche-sur-Saône. "Le Garet" farmhouse.

Image Reference: PAR151364(DER1984006 Z00324)

and

Frederick Richard Lee's "Evening in the Meadows" (cattle by Thomas Sidney Cooper) 1854
Tate, London, 2007

http://tinyurl.com/5udhbn

bob black

sorry, here's a direct link to the Pre-Magnum Harvey as cupid by Caravaggio...

http://tinyurl.com/5q5d4e

bob black

no, i dont spend all day at the magnum blog ;))), just now cooking dinner for the mrs. and little one...

another connection:

Chris Steele-Perkins and any of Katsushika Hokusai 36-views of Mt. Fuji

Steele-Perkins: LON15482

Hokusai: http://tinyurl.com/56te2b

sergio jaen lara

My proposal.

1. Lise Sarfati's PAR354706
1'. Edward Hopper. Morning sun.
http://tinyurl.com/5pubo4

Can We propose more than one association?

Alec Soth

Keep em' coming Sergio. If there is anybody out there with a lot of time on their hands, it would be great to put these images together side by side somewhere. I'd be awfully grateful and will try to find some way to reward your extra credit work.

Sean

I always thought that the Mayor of Todmorden's inaugural banquet (1977) by Martin Parr...

http://tinyurl.com/52kz3g

Reminded me of the Last Supper in Milan (1498) by Leonardo Da Vinci...

LON28321

Kas

Since no one has picked up Asian painting, here is one...

Bruno Barbey's PAR5708
Painting of people playing Go by Kano Eitoku, http://tinyurl.com/5oqgee

karolina

MAGNUM NUMBER:

NYC53312

PAINTING:

"Niagara" by Frederick Edwin Church, 1857
http://tinyurl.com/62sevz

When do you need my address?
kk

Marcin luczkowski

McCurry - Vinci (obvious)

http://tinyurl.com/6naalt

Rembrant - Majoli

http://tinyurl.com/5jke54

Kiefer - Gaumy

http://tinyurl.com/6mso7c

Alex Urban - Martin Parr

http://tinyurl.com/6zppts

Freud - Soth

http://tinyurl.com/5cebpx

Luca

- NYC25243
- Degas http://tinyurl.com/5hhk9v

and

- NYC9265
- Caravaggio http://tinyurl.com/5844lp

Kas

-Paolo Pellegrin, PAR220869
-J.M.W. Turner, http://tinyurl.com/63awa6

Kas

I'm surprised at the similarities between these...

-Carl De Keyzer, PAR66259
-Raphael's unfished 'Transfiguration' http://tinyurl.com/5njsbd

matthew

nice post

pierre yves racine

Ha ha !! The Parr Caravaggio association is straightforward but excellent !!

pierre yves racine

koudelka's egyptian touch : one more clue...

http://images.photos.com/thw/thw14/PH/OLA/36934120.thw.jpg?0390002204

and now for something completely different :

PAR206661

and

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2048/1897267368_130346b939.jpg?v=0

Wojciech Borkowski

What about this:

Chris Steele-Perkins
Trees with few remaining autumn leaves
LON44350

Jackson Pollock
Number 32, 1950
http://tinyurl.com/59p74h

Wojciech Borkowski

This one also with the above Steele-Perkins and Pollock:
Alex Majoli
LATVIA. Cesis. 2004.
PAR294439

Philip

A little bit of spice!

http://tinyurl.com/285bwb (aphrodite and pan) - PAR21397 (Sergio Larrain)

http://tinyurl.com/6hvc2v (Goya) - PAR21386 (Sergio Larrain)

marcin luczkowski

NYC3847

http://www.artquotes.net/masters/picasso/picasso_guernica1937.jpg

Philip

http://tinyurl.com/5ek53k (Cinderella, by Dore) - PAX191710 (Sergio Larrain)

I'd better stop while i can....

Philip

I hereby modify the rules to include famous...ish sculpture and illustrations.

mike

Here's one for the cave-man-about-town...
http://tinyurl.com/6ehm7m
NYC14947

Nikos Roccos

This is not an easy task.I'll try to be as much succint as i can.S i've chosen just accidentally one photographer only,G Pinkassov.1)Pinkhassov PAR24260/Painter:Avercamp:Winter landscape(a whole series of paintings with the same subject and treatment in museums like Hermitage,Rijksmuseum-Amsterdam,Mauritshuis,London N.G. etc.
2)Pinkhassov:PAR32192,S.Africa,Venda region/Painter:Vermeer:All those girls by the window in pictures in Washington N.G.,Dresden,Gemaldegallerie,Metropolitan N.Y
3)Pinkhassov,PAR267673,G.B.,London,/Painter:Hammershoi:Those honey coloured interiors with details of the carpentry of the doors etc
Sorry i realized that it's too late ,it's almost 4.00 am ,my bed still waits my tired body to offer to it some rest.Tomorrow...may be...

Alec Soth

Martin Parr & Sam Francis (I think) together: LON88414

Kas

W. Eugene Smith - Giotto

PAR168828
http://tinyurl.com/69uyab

Nikos Roccos

1)Elliot Erwitt:St Tropez,France,1979/Gaugin:Breton Women
2)Elliot Erwit:Mount Fuji,NYC 3812/Hokusai:100 views of Mount Fuji(I know it's too obvious!).

Luca

- NYC68968
- Monet http://tinyurl.com/6xlnsl or http://tinyurl.com/5v7fva

- LON93767
- Diego Rivera http://tinyurl.com/628nsx

- NYC68949
- Gauguin http://tinyurl.com/687zhb

Nikos Roccos

1)Eve Arnold:LON476/Lautrec,Degas,Picasso:Absinthe drinker

2)Eve Arnold:LON18804/Bassano,Adam Elsheimer,:The flight into Egypt

3)Eve Arnold:LON15203/Degas:Mary Cassat in the Louvre galleries

4),5),6)...

mike

Alec,
I see your Parr figure/ground joke and raise a pair of northern baroque still lifes:

http://tinyurl.com/5j8pkm
LON8686

http://tinyurl.com/fzbfh
LON8620

Pawel G.

Jasper Johns, Flag
http://preview.tinyurl.com/jasper-johns-flag

Martin Parr
LON13714
http://preview.tinyurl.com/mparr-flag

or, this one:
Thomas Dworzak
PAR275055
http://tinyurl.com/td-flag

Pawel G.

Rembrandt - "The artist in its studio"
http://tinyurl.com/rembrandt-paint

Jean Gaumy
PAR90027
http://tinyurl.com/gaumy

Pawel G.

Munch Scream
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f4/The_Scream.jpg

Ilkka Uimonen
NYC24849
http://tinyurl.com/Uimonen

Sam Harris

Henri Cartier-Bresson 'Sunday on the banks of the River Marne'. 1938. PAR45845

Seurat 'The Bathers'
http://www.webexhibits.org/colorart/pointillism.html

Fiona Rogers (Magnum London)

Not sure if Magnum staff can enter this but I couldn't resist posting something!
Its an obvious one but Antoine's 'Hamburg' portrait (PAR281274) and Francis Bacon's Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X.

sergio jaén lara

The modern traveler. LON18224

The classic DCF's traveler. http://tinyurl.com/6m7qv7

Paul Christensen

Photograph #3 by Lise Sarfati reminds me of Caroline at the window by C.D. Friedrich (http://tinyurl.com/63jccf).
And #44 by Eve Arnold is just like Death of Marat by David (http://tinyurl.com/5u2snb).
Finally, if relics count, then let me add that #11 by Philip Jones Griffiths reminds me of the Shroud of Turin (http://tinyurl.com/2qon5n).

Nikos Roccos

Searching though Philip Halsman's photos i discovered these affinities between his pictures and famous artworks:
1)PAR 38792/The profiled portraiture of early italian portraiture,mostly of Pisanello,Paolo Uccello,Ghirlandaio(The Thyssen -Bornemisza collection ,Madrid)
2)PAR196063/The glamorous imagery of Gainsborough ,mostly the portrait of a lady of society in the Frick collection NYC
3)NYC 30966/The bust of Nefertiti in Berlin
4)PAR 17518/Titian(London N,G),Lorenzo Lotto(Royal collection,London),Sir Anthony van Dyck(triple portrait of Charles I ),Philippe de Champaigne:Double portrai of Richelieu(London,NG?)
5)NYC69627/James Ensor:Self portrait with masks
6)PAR120591/Sir Thomas Lawrence:Portrait of a lady/Cleveland
7)NYC 40467/Sassoferrato or Antonello da Messina:Madonna
8)PAR 40889/Renoir:Portrait of a girl(Iren Cahen d'Anvers,1880)Foundation e.G.Burhle Collection,Zurich

Nacho Hernandez

1) Michelangelo http://tinyurl.com/6r2jwd
2) Elliott Erwitt NYC18322