Frank Horvat Italien, 1928-2020

Overview
Frank Horvat - NY, USA, father and child in the subway, 1984
Frank Horvat - NY, USA, father and child in the subway, 1984

Born in a Jewish family from Central Europe in 1928, Horvat has lived in Switzerland, Italy, Pakistan, India, England and France, where he settled in 1955, while continuing to commute in Europe, to often work in New York and to travel to various countries in Asia. 

Horvat acknowledges having been strongly influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson. After meeting him in 1950, he follows his advice (‘God didn’t put your eyes on your belly’), by replacing his Rollei with a Leica and embarking on a two-year journey in Asia, as a free-lance photojournalist. His photographs from this trip are widly published and one of them is included in the Family of Man, at the New York MOMA. 

In 1957, Horvat moves to a different branch of photography, by shooting fashion for Jardin des Modes. But he holds on to 35 mm cameras and available light  - which formerly had rarely been used for fashion. The innovation is welcomed by ready-to-wear designers, because it presents their creations in the context of everyday life for which they are meant. In the following years, he is commissioned to do similar work for Vogue in London, Harper’s Bazaar in New York and Elle in Paris, and his lead is followed by others. The only criticism comes from his master, Cartier-Bresson: "You shouldn’t mix directive and non-directive photography! What you do is pastiche"! 

Between 1962 and 1963, Horvat reverts to photo-journalism, with a trip around the world for the German magazine Revue. Then he experiments with cinema and video. In 1976, he decides to "become his own client", by producing three personal projects: Portraits of trees (1976-82), Very similar (1982-86) and New York up and down (1982-87), which he calls his "triptych" , even though the three are so diverse, that they seem to be done by three different photographers. Their point in common is that the three are in colour, which at the time is a relative exception in creative photography.

In the 80’s, Horvat suffers from an eye disease and for some months has to replace his eyes with his ears. The result is a series of interviews with fellow photographers: such as Edouard Boubat, Robert Doisneau, Mario Giacomelli, Hiroshi Hamaya, Josef Koudelka, Don McCullin, Sarah Moon, Helmut Newton, Marc Riboud, Eva Rubinstein, Jean-Loup Sieff and Joel-Peter Witkin. They are published in France, under the title Entre Vues, and are now considered a work of reference, not only because the interlocutors are famous, but also because with Horvat they ‘talk shop’, i.e. as people dealing with the same problems. 

In the 90’s, he takes an even more radical step, by adopting computer technology. First with Yao the Cat (1993), then with Bestiary (1994) and Ovid’s Metamorphoses (1995), he transgresses the cartier-bressonian rule of the ‘decisive moment’, by combining parts of images shot at different times and in different places.

 Published in 2000, with a text by the French historian Michel Pastoureau, Figures Romanes is the result of a 2-year exploration of Romanesque sculpture, an art that flourished between 1100 and 1200 AD and that to Horvat is at once visually fascinating, geographically close and intellectually remote.

His next three projects are possibly his most personal. 1999 is the photo-diary of the last year of the millennium, shot with a tiny analog camera designed for amateurs. La Véronique was shot within a 30 meters range, either inside his beloved home in Provence, Cotignac or in its immediate surroundings. Eye at the fingertips, started in 2006, is photographed with a digital compact camera. It can best be described as a hodgepodge of whatever triggers some emotional response in his mind, even if his mental associations are not always conscious (or particularly in those cases). ‘1999’ has been widely published and exhibited, the other two are still confidential. In all three, Horvat explores the miracles of everyday life, unlike the widespread tendency of photographing whatever seems exceptional or extreme.         

Until the last days, Frank Horvat carried his small camera everywhere he went. He kept working on his Livres Blancs, a self-published edition, allowing him to retrace all the different languages in his career.

He passed away on October 21st, surrounded by his family.

 

 

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Biography
Frank Horvat

EXPOSITIONS PERSONNELLES
2023
Paris, le monde, la mode, Jeu de Paume Concorde, Paris, France
New York by Frank Horvat, Les Douches La Galerie, Paris, France

Frank Horvat, Paris, Centre photographique Rouen Normandie, France

Please don’t smile, Leica Galerie Wetzlar, Allemagne

2022

Frank Horvat, Librairie Actes Sud, Arles, France
Frank Horvat l’imprévisible, Les Douches La Galerie, Paris, France
Frank Horvat 50-65, Jeu de Paume – Château de Tours, France
2021
Paris, années 1950, Maison de la photographie Robert-Doisneau, Gentilly, France
2020
Vraies Semblances, 1981 - 1986, Galerie Lelong & Co., espace Matignon, Paris, France
2019
House with Fifteen Keys, Multimedia Art Museum - Moscow House of Photography, Moscou, Fédération de Russie
2018
Frank Horvat et ses contemporains, Vieille Eglise Saint-Vincent, Mérignac, France

Frank Horvat et ses contemporains, Musée de la Photographie, Lille, France
Please don’t smile, Museo Palau Solterra, Torroella de Montgrí, Espagne
Frank Horvat. Storia di un fotografo, Musei Reali Torino - Sale Chiablese, Turin, Italie
Un moment d’une femme, Nexus Hall Chanel, Tokyo, Japon
2015 

House with Fifteen keys, Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin, Allemagne
2014
House with Fifteen keys, Théâtre de la Photographie et de l’Image, Nice, France
2012
Retrospective, Brucie Collections, Kiev, Ukraine
2011
No repeat, CRAF - Centro di Ricerca e Archiviazione della Fotografia, Spilimbergo, Italie 
L’Eleganza nella moda e nel quotidiano, Photographica FineArt Gallery, Lugano, Suisse
2010
Fashion Photographs, Manège Gallery, Saint Petersbourg, Fédération de Russie
2008
New York up and down, La-Maison-près-Bastille, Paris , France
Ways of an eye, Villa Tamaris, La Seyne, France
2007
Strip-tease, Libreria d’arte Assolibri, Florence, Italie
2005
Photographs of the sculptures by Robert Couturier, Fondation Dina Vierny, Paris, France 
La Veronique, Libreria d’arte Assolibri, Florence, Italie
2003
Rétrospective, Maison de la Photographie, Toulon, France
2002
Homage to Catalonia, Fundation Vila Casas, Barcelone, Espagne
2000
51 Photographs in Black and White, Musée Régional des Centovalli, Intragna, Suisse
1999, a daily report and Paris vintage, Musée Régional des Centovalli, Intragna, Suisse
1999
Goethe in Sicily, Casa di Goethe, Rome, Italie
Horvat’s Bestiary, Zoological Museum, Kiel, Allemagne
1998
Goethe in Sicily, Goethe-Haus, Francfort, Allemagne

Vraies Semblances, Institut Français, Valence, France
1997
Frank Horvat, Photographie-Forum, Francfort, Allemagne
Frank Horvat, Institut Français, Prague, République Tchèque
Frank Horvat, Institut Français, Bratislava, Slovaquie
1996
Fashion Photography, Fotofest, Houston, États-Unis
Paris-London, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, France
1995
Le Bestiaire d’Horvat, Centro Krizia, Milan, Italie
Le Bestiaire d’Horvat, Parc Régional de la Bresse, France

1994
Le Bestiaire d’Horvat, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France
1993
Fashion Photographs, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France
Frank Horvat, Foto-folies, Rodez, France
1990
Vraies Semblances, Fotofest, Houston, Etats-Unis
Vraies Semblances, French Institute, New York, Etats-Unis
1989

Photographies de mode, Espace Paris-Audiovisuel, Paris, France
Album de famille, Comptoir de la Photographie, Paris, France
Photographies de mode, Festival de la Photographie de Mode, Trouville, France
1988
Photographes et créateurs de mode, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France
Fashion photography, Centre Culturel Français, Prague, République Tchèque
Fashion photography, Bell Commons Space, Tokyo, Japon
1985
Photographies de mode, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Montbéliard, France
1984
Arbres, Centre Culturel, Toulon, France
1983
Arbres, Maison de la Culture, Angoulème, France
Arbres, La Chambre Claire, Paris, France
Vraies Semblances, Espace Canon, Paris, France
1982
Trees, National Museum, La Valette, Malte
1979
Trees, International Center of Photography, New York, Etats-Unis
1977
Arbres, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Nantes, France

EXPOSITIONS COLLECTIVES

2021

Frank Horvat x Sarah Conton Terquem, at Parcours Saint Germain, Paris, France
2020
Women On View, Aesthetics of Desire in Advertising - Chaussée 36 Photography Collection, Frauen Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Allemagne
2019
50 ans d’Expos, Les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles, France
Dyptics, at La Mostra Fotografica, Carona Immagina at Carona, Suisse
2018
Entre nous, Soizic Audouard et Catherine Thieck ouvrent leurs tiroirs de photographies, Galerie de France, Paris, France
2017 
FNAC, Une Collection pour l’exemple II, Musée Nicéphore Niepce, Chalon sur Saône, France

2016
Imago - Portraits photographiques, Musée Réattu, Arles, France
Eyes Wide Open! 100 jaar Leica fotografie, Kunsthal Sint-Pietersabdij, Gand, Belgique
2015
Newton. Horvat. Brodziak, Museum für Fotografie, Berlin, Allemagne
2013
Fantastic Machinery, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turquie
2010
Lunga vista sul ritratto, 10b Photography, Rome, Italie
2008
Mujeres en plural, Fundacion Canal, Madrid, Espagne
2003
Fables de l’identité, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France
2000
Femmes plus que Femmes, Fundation Armando Alvarez Penteado, São Paulo, Brésil
1994 
Collective Exhibition, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Suisse
1992 
Sculptures by Degas, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France
1991
Appearances, Victoria and Albert Museum, Londres, Royaume-Uni
1985
Fashion Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, Londres, Royaume-Uni
1984
Renault, Centre Kodak, Paris, France
1983
Arbres, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
1982
Paris-Paris, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
1955
The Family of Man, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, États-Unis

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