Paris Gallery Baudoin Lebon Brings Photography to the Fore in Series of Exhibitions

Since the gallery’s founding in 1976, Baudoin Lebon has become known for its exceedingly diverse range of art and artists. Though the gallery presents thoughtfully curated exhibitions of everything from painting to installation art, it has garnered a distinct reputation for specializing in Modern and contemporary photography. The gallery even has its own prestigious collection of 19th- and 20th-century photographs—including from several estates, like that of acclaimed Austrian-American photographer Lisette Model. Baudoin Lebon exhibitions are also noted for their pioneering spirit; for instance, Baudoin Lebon was the first in Paris to present the work of Australian aboriginal painters, the result of ongoing engagement and exchange with Australian artists and institutions. Much of the gallery’s program can be attributed to a commitment to long-term relationships with its artists and estates.

Baudoin Lebon’s current exhibition, “Joel-Peter Witkin: The Untold Life of the Photograph,” is now on view a through November 26. Featuring never-before-seen contact sheets, preparatory drawings, and unique photographic prints that the artist augmented by adding encaustic paint, the artist’s full stylistic range is explored. The exhibition highlights Witkin’s meticulous practice, in which every detail is arrived at through extensive experimentation. Meanwhile, Baudoin Lebon’s presentation at Moderne Art Fair, Paris—which opened today—features a sampling of historically significant works, both figurative and abstract, by artists such as Bernhard Réquichot, Jean Dubuffet, and Laurent Perbos. Together, the presentation highlights the gallery’s dynamic range of Modern and contemporary art.

Come November 10, Baudoin Lebon will be exhibiting at Paris Photo with a presentation focused on portraiture. Conceived of as a multi-part show, the works will be changed three times over the course of the fair, altering the juxtapositions of the various portraits in relation to one another, offering an ever-evolving curatorial impression for viewers. Highlighting the play between documentation and artifice in photographic portraiture, the presentation will include an intriguing combination of celebrities, artists’ models, acquaintances, and anonymous sitters as captured by Man Ray, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Alain Turpault, among others. One wall of the booth will center on a mirror around which some of the more famous faces are clustered, an installation inspired by a refrain from Baudelaire: “From that moment our squalid society rushed, Narcissus to a man, to gaze at its trivial image on a scrap of metal.”

See featured works from Baudoin Lebon’s current Joel-Peter Witkin show below.