Leibovitz Annie: WOMEN: New Portraits
‘WOMEN: New Portraits‘, an exhibition of newly commissioned photographs by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz will open to the public in Milan at Fabbrica Orobia 15, in the south of the city, as part of a 10-city global tour.
Leibovitz’s new work is a continuation of a project that began over fifteen years ago when her most
enduringly popular series of photographs, ‘Women’, was published in 1999. Susan Sontag, with whom the original project was a collaboration, called it “a work in progress”. ‘WOMEN: New Portraits‘ will reflect the changes in the roles of women today and as a body of work will evolve throughout the duration of the exhibition tour.
The new portraits feature women of outstanding achievement including artists, musicians, CEOs, politicians, writers and philanthropists. In addition to the new photographs, the exhibition includes work from the original series, as well as other unpublished photographs taken since.
Annie Leibovitz said: “When I asked UBS about updating the WOMEN’s project there was no hesitation. They said let’s do it, and they have been extraordinary in every way. It is such a big undertaking and a broad subject, it is like going out and photographing the ocean.”
Fabio Innocenzi, UBS Group Country Head Italy said: “It’s fantastic to be partnering with Annie on this project which celebrates incredible women at the top of their fields. We hope that these commissioned photographs and our accompanying public programmes inspire and empower as many people as possible. This tour builds on our long-standing support of initiatives which encourage engagement in contemporary art.”
Aligned with the focus UBS places on education, the free learning programs accompanying the exhibition will explore ways of seeing through photography, working with young people in local communities. In Milan, these programs will include workshops with photography and arts students from Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, IED Istituto Europeo di Design, and IIF Istituto Italiano di Fotografia. On weekends free family programs will be presented. A Teachers’ Guide produced in partnership with the International Center of Photography in New York and a Children’s Activity Guide are available to teachers and the public on the exhibition website.
UBS are also presenting a talks program, ‘Women for Women’ through 2016, addressing topics of global and local relevance to women’s rights.
Annie Leibovitz (b. 1949) has been making powerful images documenting popular culture since the early 1970s, when she began working as a photojournalist for Rolling Stone. She became the magazine’s chief photographer in 1973, and ten years later began working for Vanity Fair and then Vogue. Her large and distinguished body of work encompasses some of the best-known portraits of our time. Exhibitions of Leibovitz’s work have been shown at museums and galleries around the world, including the National Portrait UBS Group AG, News Release, 25 July 2016 Page 1 of 3
Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the International Center of Photography in New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; the National Portrait Gallery in London; and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her work is held in museum collections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. to the National Portrait Gallery in London. She has published several collections of photographs and is the recipient of many honours. In 2006 she was made a ‘Commandeur’ in the ‘Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ by the French government. In 2009, she received the International Center of Photography’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the first Creative Excellence Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors, and the Centenary Medal of the Royal Photographic Society in London. In 2012, she was the recipient of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art Award to Distinguished Women in the Arts and the Wexner Prize. In 2013 she received the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. In 2015 she received SFMoMA’s Contemporary Vision Award. She has been designated a Living Legend by the Library of Congress.
A set of the new photographs will enter the UBS Art Collection – one of the world’s most important corporate collections of contemporary art, comprising more than 30,000 works.
