Abelardo Morell
Since October 1st and through January 5th, 2o14, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles is presenting Abelardo Morell: The Universe Next Door, an important retrospective of the work of the renowned Cuban-born, Boston-based photographer. The exhibition brings together some of the artist's best known series, with more than 100 works created between 1986 and the present. The exhibition was organized by the Art Institute of Chicago in association with the J. Paul Getty Museum and Atlanta's High Museum of Art. It was first presented at the Art Institute of Chicago between June and September of 2013.
Early in his career, Morell was inspired by the photographic work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, and Diane Arbus. In 1986, however, his work took a radical turn due to family circumstances. The arrival of his first child drove him to direct his gaze towards domestic life and to take his photographs as if he himself were a child. "This strategy", the artist explains, "helped me look at things around me with greater attention, more slowly, and from points of view I had not taken into consideration before".
The show is accompanied by a 176-page catalog, featuring an essay by Elizabeth Siege, Associate Curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago; an interview by Paul Martineau, Associate Curator of Photography at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; and an illustrated chronology by Brett Abbott, Curator of Photography and Collections Director at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.
