Entre quatre yeux
ENTRE QUATRE YEUX (ONE-ON-ONE)
LUCIEN HERVÉ, RODOLF HERVÉ
The exhibition One-one-One (Entre quatre yeux)
presents in an unprecedented way the photographic works of Lucien Hervé and Rodolf Hervé, a father and his son. This exhibition is a face-to-face of intimacy, curated by Judith Elkan Hervé, widow of Lucien Hervé, who has worked since the beginning for the international recognition of the work of her husband, a pillar of architectural photography, but also of that of her son, a predominant artist of the 1990’s Hungarian underground, who died prematurely in 2000. The exhibition displays a set of diptychs, showing the complementarity and, at the same time, the singularity of the two artists. The exhibition lingers on their shared ideas around social criticism, humor and irony punctuating the clichés, the plastic extensions to the question of daring centering, abstraction and materiality of photographic media. The son's versatile and colorful images complement the black and white radicalism of the father's, and suggest that the two men were a source of inspiration for each other.
Lucien Hervé (1910-2007) was born in 1910 in a small town in Hungary. He moved to Paris in 1929, where he spent the rest of his life. He started to photograph in the late 1930’s. In 1949 he met Le Corbusier, one of the leading figures of modern architecture. He became his « official photographer » between 1949 and 1965. His visionary eye and his remarkable work regarding the irruption of geometry and the construction of images by shadow and light, quickly aroused the interest of other architects such as Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, Pier Luigi Nervi, Richard Neutra, Oscar Niemeyer, Jean Prouvé, etc. His work has entered the most important international collections : Albertina in Vienne, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Getty Research Institut in Los Angeles, MOMA in New York, CCA in Montréal, Kahitsuka Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art in Kyoto, M+ Museum in Hong Kong, Matisse Museum in Nice, agnès b. collection in Paris... There has been a multiplication of exhibitions and retrospectives : Jeu de Paume (2017), Centre Pompidou (1987, 2010), Decorative Arts Museum (1963, 1966), BNF (1964), FUGA-Center of Architecture in Budapest (2019), Jakopi Gallery in Ljubljana (2019), Galerie der Moderne in München (2014, 2018), Musée Benaki in Athènes (2016), Matisse Museum in Nice (2014), Fondation Le Corbusier (2007, 2014), Fine Arts Museum in Budapest (2010), House of Photography Robert Doisneau (2010), Berardo Collection (2008), Hungarian House of Photography – Mai Mano House (2008), Espace Louis Vuitton (2006), Carnavalet Museum (2005), Budapest Gallery (1989), Suomen Rakennustaiteen Museo in Helsinki (1963, 1976, 1987), etc.
As for him, Rodolf Hervé (1957-2000) was very active within the 1990’s Hungarian underground circles. He arrived in Budapest in 1989 thanks to the solicitation of Vasarely Museum. Then he stayed in Hungary during several years after the change in regime. He became a leader of the alternative artistic scene. With his rebellious personality, he worked on all mediums (video, music, performances...), even if photography remained a privileged means to suggest movement, thought in action and express the emotion of a hallucinated and surrealist world, between tenderness and violence, lyricism and drama. Like an intense, pressing need to experience life and its fullness. Since the Vasarely Museum in Budapest in 1990, Rodolf Hervé has been exhibited at the Széchenyi Thermal Bath in Budapest (1991), at the János Xantus Museum in Györ (1992), at the Szent István Király Museum in Székesfehérvár (2001), at the Centrális Gallery in Budapest (2011), etc. His artworks are part of the collection of the Open Society Archives in Budapest, of the collection of agnès b., of the art library in Annecy, etc.
The exhibition One-on-One (Entre quatre yeux)
opened in Várfok Gallery in Budapest in 2019. The show is sponsored by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary and is part of the Budapest Photo Festival’s official program series.