id: 147358
accession number: 1973.122
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.122
updated: 2025-03-15 11:04:46.212000
The Singer Kiki of Montparnasse, 1933 (printed after 1968). Brassaï (French, 1899–1984). Gelatin silver print; image: 32.9 x 24 cm (12 15/16 x 9 7/16 in.); paper: 39.7 x 29.9 cm (15 5/8 x 11 3/4 in.); matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Wishing Well Fund 1973.122 © The Brassaï Estate - RMN
title: The Singer Kiki of Montparnasse
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1933 (printed after 1968)
creation date earliest: 1933
creation date latest: 1933
current location:
creditline: Wishing Well Fund
copyright: © The Brassaï Estate - RMN
---
culture: France, 20th century
technique: gelatin silver print
department: Photography
collection: PH - French 20th Century
type: Photograph
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
---
CREATORS
* Brassaï (French, 1899–1984) - artist
Brassaï (Gyula Halász) French, born Austria-Hungary, 1899-1984 A photographer, painter, sculptor, and writer, Brassaï became known during the 1930s for his photographs of Parisian nightlife. Initially interested in painting, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest (1918-19), and the Academische Hochschule, Berlin-Charlottenburg (1921-22). He adopted the name Brassaï (after his hometown, Brasso) following his move in 1924 to Paris, where he worked as a painter and journalist for Hungarian and German newspapers. Around 1929-30 Brassaï began to take photographs, receiving advice from Hungarian photographer André Kertész. His special interest was the city at night; during his walks after dark he photographed Paris dance halls, cafes, bars, and bordellos, as well as the vagrants and thugs who roamed the dimly lit streets. In 1933 Brassaï's nocturnal views of Paris were published as Paris de Nuit (Paris by Night). The book was a great success and helped to launch his photographic career. Brassaï began to receive assignments from such journals as Verve, Labyrinthe, and Minotaure, a new review of art and literature which commissioned him to photograph artists and their studios. He also became associated with Harper's Bazaar and over the next three decades completed many assignments for the magazine. Among the artists and writers he came to know during this period were Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Alberto Giacometto, André Breton, Tristan Tzara, and Man Ray. During the German occupation of Paris in the 1940s, no longer able to wander freely through the streets, Brassaï turned to drawing; he also began to photograph Picasso's sculpture in his Paris studio. After the war, Brassaï continued his photographic series Graffiti and designed the photographic backdrops for several plays and ballets; he also published Histoire de Marie (1949), a surrealist poem with a preface by Henry Miller. In the mid-1950s he won a prize at the Cannes film festival for his movie Tant qui'il y aura des bêtes and in 1964 published a critically acclaimed book, Conversations avec Picasso. Throughout his career Brassaï exhibited his pictures widely, including a one-person exhibition of his photographs of graffiti at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in the mid-1950s, followed by a retrospective of his work there in 1968. M.M.
---
measurements: Image: 32.9 x 24 cm (12 15/16 x 9 7/16 in.); Paper: 39.7 x 29.9 cm (15 5/8 x 11 3/4 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
inscription: Written in black felt pen on recto: "Brassaï [signed]"; "4/30"; written in black ink on verso: "Pl. 496"; in black felt pen: "Pl. 496"; in brown felt pen: "Brassaï" [underlined] [signed]; in red ink: " 'La chanteuse Kiki à Montparnasse' / en 1933"
translation:
remark:
---
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Year in Review: 1973
opening date: 1974-01-30T05:00:00
Year in Review: 1973. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 30-March 17, 1974).
title: Urban Vicissitudes
opening date: 1985-07-02T04:00:00
Urban Vicissitudes. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 2-September 29, 1985).
---
LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* {'description': 'CMA, January 30 - March 17, 1974: "Year in Review 1973," CMA Bulletin 61 (February 1974), p. 77, no. 139.', 'opening_date': '1974-01-30T00:00:00'}
---
PROVENANCE
---
fun fact:
digital description:
wall description:
---
RELATED WORKS
---
CITATIONS
Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
page number: Reproduced: P. 110
url:
---
IMAGES