Larry Clark, Jonathan Velasquez, 2004.
Courtesy: the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York and Simon Lee Gallery, London.
The first major retrospective in France dedicated to the work of photographer and cult director Larry Clark has managed to draw national attention — even international, one might say, since quite a few media outlets have talked about it even here in Italy — due to the protests by several Catholic associations that preceded its opening.
Mindful of what happened in Bordeaux, where in 2000, a child protection group brought charges over the “Présumés innocents” exhibition organized at CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporaine de Bordeaux — whose contents and references were accused of presenting pedophilia in a “favorable” light — leading to a drawn-out court case that lasted about ten years, the city has decided to make the retrospective off-limits to those under 18, the first time a French museum has ever taken such a measure. In the prevailing witch-hunt climate, even the publisher of the catalogue that was supposed to accompany the show has beaten a retreat.
Getting back to the exhibition, one can say it has been structured as a complete overview of Clark’s work and his 50-year career, all the way from Tulsa, to ghetto skateboarders in Los Angeles, through over 200 prints that show the artist’s epic obsession with teenagers, divided between sex, drugs, and “rock ‘n’ roll”. The usual stuff. The good news, though, is that visitors to the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris will be able to enjoy the exhibition without the rowdiness or subtly perverse giggles of the umpteenth truckload of teenagers on educational trips, with their normal, healthy hormone surges.
Musée d’Art Modern de la Ville de Paris
11 avenue du Président Wilson, 75116 Paris
www.mam.paris.fr
Mindful of what happened in Bordeaux, where in 2000, a child protection group brought charges over the “Présumés innocents” exhibition organized at CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporaine de Bordeaux — whose contents and references were accused of presenting pedophilia in a “favorable” light — leading to a drawn-out court case that lasted about ten years, the city has decided to make the retrospective off-limits to those under 18, the first time a French museum has ever taken such a measure. In the prevailing witch-hunt climate, even the publisher of the catalogue that was supposed to accompany the show has beaten a retreat.
Getting back to the exhibition, one can say it has been structured as a complete overview of Clark’s work and his 50-year career, a
