“Through this commission to Lisa Oppenheim, the Mudam wanted to pay tribute to a historic figure in art, Edward Steichen, while taking a contemporary look at his work,” explained Mudam director in her introduction. This is how American photographer Lisa Oppenheim (born in 1975) chose to respond to Edward Steichen’s artistic practice. The photographer, who for over 20 years has been developing a body of work that explores the history of photography and its unexplored potential, has produced a set of new photographs and textiles that reveal an unexpected and sensitive portrait of “Mr Steichen.”
Photographer and curator Edward Steichen spent his career in the United States, but was of Luxembourgish origin. This explains why some of his work is now preserved in Luxembourg: “” in Clervaux, “” in Dudelange, both held by the National Audio-Visual Centre (CNA), and a large body of photographs held by the (MNAHA).
Creating a subjective portrait
For this new project, Oppenheim has chosen to focus on lesser-known aspects of Steichen’s interests, namely flower growing and textile design. “These are secondary subjects in his creative work, but they help to shed light on different aspects of his personality,” says Oppenheim.
In the Leir pavilion, for example, there is a series of photographs depicting an iris, a now extinct variety known as “Monsieur Steichen,” created by a French amateur botanist in 1910. “Unable to find this flower, I used images of its ‘parents’ and worked with artificial intelligence to recreate this ‘daughter flower.’” In addition to this creation, she reworked the images using a method used by Steichen himself, dye transfer, which gave her an unparalleled play of colours. “Steichen wasn’t afraid to use new technologies and experiment. That’s why I felt very free to work in this way too,” explains the artist.
In the centre of the room, screens covered with textiles printed with floral motifs are deployed. “It’s not widely known, but in 1926 Steichen created textile motifs for the Stehli Silks factory. Going against the grain of traditional textile prints, he was interested in motifs taken from ordinary life, such as matchboxes, sugar cubes and buttons. I happen to know a textile designer called Zoe Latta, who helped me to create new motifs from photos that Steichen had left out.” On the back of these screens, Oppenheim hangs portraits of women who were important in the photographer’s life: his three wives, Clara, Donna and Joanna, and his mother. These photographs are from the collections of the MNAHA.
In the basement, the space is more subdued. The walls are covered in hessian, a very cheap fabric that was commonly used in photo galleries during the 20th century, including the one run by Steichen in collaboration with Alfred Stieglitz. Here, visitors can discover a series of studies that offer an insight into Oppenheim’s creative process. She combines photographs from the photographer’s archives with experiments she carries out in her darkroom.
To complement these proposals, a bouquet is also on display in the pavilion. This is a Luxembourg florist’s interpretation of Steichen’s chromatic variations on a photograph of a bouquet. And in the museum moat, Oppenheim has had delphiniums planted, a flower that Steichen grew in Connecticut and which he exhibited in a highly avant-garde way at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1936. This “Eduard’s Garden” will flower in June and July.
Mr Steichen is on display until 28 August at
This article was originally published in .