ROBERT CAPA. In History

Mudec, Milan November 11, 2022 – March 19, 2023 (Check the opening on the site)

On the occasion of the 110th anniversary of Robert Capa’s birth (October 22nd, 1913) Mudec pays tribute to the great Hungarian photographer with a solo exhibition encompassing his major war and travel reportages. A journey through Capa’s 20-year career, which unfolded during some of the crucial moments in the history of the 20th century. The exhibition was made possible thanks to a collaboration with the Magnum Photos agency and it brings together an exceptional body of photographs: more than 80 original prints, some of which have never been shown in an Italian exhibition before, accompanied by some documents from the Magnum’s collection dating back to the same period. The exhibition includes seven sections and a diachronic itinerary through the most important black-and-white reportages by Robert Capa, from the beginning of his career in Berlin and Paris (1932-1936) to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939); from the

Japanese invasion of China (1938) to World War II (1941-1945); from his travel reportage in the Soviet Union (1947) to the one about the birth of Israel (1948-1950), and, finally, his last assignment as a war photographer in Indochina (1954). In his 20-year career, Capa has narrated History as it unfolded, while always staying true to his famous aphorism: “if your pictures are not good enough, it means you were not close enough”. Action - with all its dynamism and propulsive force - can be perceived in all shots, as a thin red line unravelling also in the portraits on display, whose number has been kept deliberately small based on a careful selection aimed at showing visitors the very faces of History, such as the face of Trockij as an ardent orator, or offering a glimpse of Capa’s personal history, as with his photograph of Picasso, taken in his Paris studio where he had remained even during the occupation, and of his friend Steinbeck, with whom he undertook the journey beyond the Iron Curtain in ‘47. ▲