APCOM

Hitting images, made of nudes and suffering bodies, sometimes freaky and very often ambiguous. The two photography exhibitions opening today at Pac museum (Padiglione di Arte Contemporanea) in Palestro street are dedicated to Jan Saudek e Joel Peter Witkin. They are two worldwide known photographers, whose original pictures are either loved or hated.

Culture assessor Vittorio Sgarbi spoke today of Saudek and Witkin as "two legends". About the Czech artist Saudek, Sgarbi said that he is "more decadent than Oscar Wilde, more elegant than Dante Gabriel Rossetti, more spiritual than Rilke, more theatrical than D'Annunzio". In his pictures there is an important pictorial component: he began to hand paint his images in 1977. Saudek's pictures are often inspired by the nineteenth century tradition of photographs of large women posing in lingerie reproduced as postcards. As Saudek has often stated, "I don't have the capacity to portray other people's lives. I am portraying my own".

About American Joel Peter Witkin, Culture assessor said that "he's searching for the living Christ through deaths' bodies. That's why he is very similar to Francis Bacon". His pictures are, in a certain way, an investigation about our fears. An example is "Freaks" a collection of photographs, started in 1956.After his experience as reporter in Vietnam, Witkin considers death a normal thing, analyzing its more obscure aspects. And, by doing this, he paradoxically realizes a work of art that is an inn to life.

In Witkin's exhibition there are about forty vintage and recent works in black and white that cover his photographic work, facing strong but daily subjects. Saudek's photography uses elaborately painted backdrops and interior walls, magical costumes and props: he is both voyeur and participant, photographer and model. The two exhibitions will remain open at Pac until the 27 of April.