Fine Art PR Publicity Announcements News and Information
Fine Art PR Publicity Announcements News and Information

Henri Cartier-Bresson Retrospective Opens at MoMA

Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century, has opened at The Museum of Modern Art. On view through June 28, 2010.

The exhibition comprises 300 prints from 1929 to 1989, at least one fifth of them previously unknown to the public, and focuses on the most productive decades of the 1930s through the 1960s.


Henri Cartier-Bresson. Juvisy, France. 1938. Gelatin silver print, printed 1947, 9 1/8 x 13 11/16″ (23.3 x 34.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the photographer. © 2010 Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos, courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) is one of the most original, accomplished, influential, and beloved figures in the history of photography. His inventive work of the early 1930s helped define the creative potential of modern photography, and his uncanny ability to capture life on the run made his work synonymous with “the decisive moment”—the title of his first major book. After World War II (most of which he spent as a prisoner of war) and his first museum show (at MoMA in 1947), he joined Robert Capa and others in founding the Magnum photo agency, which enabled photojournalists to reach a broad audience through magazines such as Life while retaining control over their work.

The exhibition is organized by Peter Galassi, Chief Curator, Department of Photography.

The exhibition is supported by The William Randolph Hearst Endowment Fund.

Additional funding is provided by The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Robert B. Menschel, and Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis.

The exhibition travels to The Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019, (212) 708-9400

www.moma.org