Book Description

"The Work of Atget: The Art of Old Paris will be published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same title, on view in the West Wing Galleries of The Museum of Modern Art from October 14, 1982 through January 4, 1983. The book is the second of four exploring the art of the French photographer Eugene Atget. Support for The Work of Atget volumes has been generously provided by Springs Industries, Inc. During his lifetime, Atget was best known as a photographer of Old Paris, the subject of this volume. To create his portrait of Paris as it had appeared prior to the French Revolution, he photographed not only the famous sites and monuments--Notre Dame, the Pantheon, and the Luxembourg Palace--but also the little-noticed corners and artifacts that had escaped the urban renewal projects of the 19th century--the quiet courtyards, private town houses, and unexpected passageways. Perhaps no more intimate portrait of Old Paris exists than the one Atget painstakingly fashioned." "A biography of Atget by Mrs. Hambourg forms the text of the 192-page The Art of Old Paris. Drawing on new research, Mrs. Hambourg reveals more fully the life of this hitherto elusive and shadowy artist and offers new insights into his intellectual pursuits and his political and artistic associations. The 117 photographs in the exhibition are reproduced as full-page plates, printed in three color offset to insure the utmost fidelity to the original prints. The plates are fully annotated and accompanied by 95 reference illustrations."--Excerpt from the MoMA press release No. 31 (see link to PDF).