While Pablo Picasso internationally exhibited his paintings, he chose to expose his sculptures only through photographs. Picasso’s commitment to the photographic display of his sculpture comes to light through his fifteen year collaboration with Brassaï, the first photographer to collaborate regularly with the artist and the only one to engage thoroughly with Picasso’s sculptural oeuvre. This collaboration culminated in hundreds of images published largely on two occasions – a photo essay published in the avant-garde Journal Minotaure in 1933 and a catalogue covering almost fifty years of Picasso’s sculptural production published in French in 1948 and in English in 1949. These photographs, as well as unpublished prints, uncropped versions of the published photographs, and the contact sheets Brassaï assembled as he was photographing Picasso’s oeuvre are contextualized in light of contemporary theories regarding the presentation, representation, and dissemination of art. This case study sheds light on the way in which strategies of display shape art’s meaning, as well as the artist’s public image, reputation, and legacy.

While Pablo Picasso internationally exhibited his paintings, he chose to expose his sculptures only through photographs. Picasso’s commitment to the photographic display of his sculpture comes to light through his fifteen year collaboration with Brassaï, the first photographer to collaborate regularly with the artist and the only one to engage thoroughly with Picasso’s sculptural oeuvre. This collaboration culminated in hundreds of images published largely on two occasions – a photo essay published in the avant-garde Journal Minotaure in 1933 and a catalogue covering almost fifty years of Picasso’s sculptural production published in French in 1948 and in English in 1949. These photographs, as well as unpublished prints, uncropped versions of the published photographs, and the contact sheets Brassaï assembled as he was photographing Picasso’s oeuvre are contextualized in light of contemporary theories regarding the presentation, representation, and dissemination of art. This case study sheds light on the way in which strategies of display shape art’s meaning, as well as the artist’s public image, reputation, and legacy.

Esta dissertação relê aspectos da relação entre as artes plásticas e as poéticas do espaço urbano a partir da trajetória e da obra fotográfica de Gyula Halász, conhecido como Brassaï. Além da referida reflexão, cujo objetivo implica na observação de um corpus estrito, este estudo evidencia algumas problemáticas que se inserem em contextos mais amplos. De um lado, permite apreender, através de sua singularidade, aspectos históricos, econômicos, técnico-científicos e socioculturais que são relevantes para a temática da modernidade. Por outro lado, esses aspectos relacionam-se à investigação das dinâmicas criativas, processos de conhecimento, culturas urbanas e mobilidade, que estão presentes no desenvolvimento das imensas aglomerações urbanas que se espalharam pelo globo a partir do fim da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Embora a importância de todos esses objetos de estudos seja incontestável na atualidade do mundo globalizado, sua relação com o passado recente é menos nítida. Dividida em quatro capítulos, esta dissertação está organizada em quatro partes que correspondem a aspectos particulares, ainda que não isolados, da obra de Brassaï artista. No primeiro capítulo exploro a relação entre a imigração e a transição para uma nova perspectiva artística de Brassaï, transformando-o naquilo que o escritor Henry Miller descreveu como o olho de P ris. O segundo capítulo se concentra na estética noturna pela qual Brassaï apresenta Paris, bem como os aspectos culturais de sua leitura sobre a noturnidade. O terceiro capítulo prende-se aos aspectos do fazer artístico de Brassaï, da exploração da cidade e, particularmente, das técnicas visuais que o fotógrafo usava para narrar os acontecimentos em um espaço urbano iluminado pela noite. Já no quatro e último capítulo, que funciona como considerações finais da pesquisa, traço um paralelo entre da Paris dos anos 1920 à Paris contemporânea, onde a flânerie tornou possível a Brassaï o encontro com os graffitti, que capta simultaneamente as paredes tatuadas da cidade e as inscrições da luz fotográfica, estabelecendo com uma humanidade noturna uma fraternidade que a câmera transfigura e eterniza. / This dissertation reviews aspects of the relation between plastic arts and the poetics of urban space reflecting on the trajectory and the photographic work of Gyula Halász, also known as Brassaï. Further than the referred reflection, whose objective implies the observation of a strict corpus, this study makes evident some issues inserted in wider contexts. From one side, it makes possible to grasp, by means of its singularity, the historical, economic, techno-scientific and social-cultural aspects that are relevant to the theme of modernity. From another side, these aspects are related to the investigation of creative dynamics, knowledge processes, urban cultures and mobility, which are present in the development of huge urban agglomerations that spread in the globe from the end of Second World War. Although the importance of all these objects of study were incontestable, its relations with recent past are not fully clear. Being presented in three chapters, this dissertation is organized in three parts which correspond to particular aspects of the artistic work of Brassaï. In the first chapter, I explore the relation between immigration nd Br ss ïs tr nsition to a new artistic perspective that transformed him in what Henry Miller described as the eye of P ris. The second chapter leads with the nocturnal esthetics by which Brassaï presented Paris, as much as with the cultural aspects of his lecture of the nocturne. The third chapter is linked with the exploration of the city and, particularly, with the technical approaches Brassaï used to describe events in an urban space illuminated by night. In the fourth and final chapter, which serves as final considerations of the research, we draw a parallel between the Paris of the 1920s to contemporary Paris, where dawdling made it possible to Brassaï the meeting with graffitti, which simultaneously captures the tattooed city walls and the inscriptions of the photographic light setting with a night humanity a fraternity that the camera transfigures and perpetuates.

Esta dissertação relê aspectos da relação entre as artes plásticas e as poéticas do espaço urbano a partir da trajetória e da obra fotográfica de Gyula Halász, conhecido como Brassaï. Além da referida reflexão, cujo objetivo implica na observação de um corpus estrito, este estudo evidencia algumas problemáticas que se inserem em contextos mais amplos. De um lado, permite apreender, através de sua singularidade, aspectos históricos, econômicos, técnico-científicos e socioculturais que são relevantes para a temática da modernidade. Por outro lado, esses aspectos relacionam-se à investigação das dinâmicas criativas, processos de conhecimento, culturas urbanas e mobilidade, que estão presentes no desenvolvimento das imensas aglomerações urbanas que se espalharam pelo globo a partir do fim da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Embora a importância de todos esses objetos de estudos seja incontestável na atualidade do mundo globalizado, sua relação com o passado recente é menos nítida. Dividida em quatro capítulos, esta dissertação está organizada em quatro partes que correspondem a aspectos particulares, ainda que não isolados, da obra de Brassaï artista. No primeiro capítulo exploro a relação entre a imigração e a transição para uma nova perspectiva artística de Brassaï, transformando-o naquilo que o escritor Henry Miller descreveu como o olho de P ris. O segundo capítulo se concentra na estética noturna pela qual Brassaï apresenta Paris, bem como os aspectos culturais de sua leitura sobre a noturnidade. O terceiro capítulo prende-se aos aspectos do fazer artístico de Brassaï, da exploração da cidade e, particularmente, das técnicas visuais que o fotógrafo usava para narrar os acontecimentos em um espaço urbano iluminado pela noite. Já no quatro e último capítulo, que funciona como considerações finais da pesquisa, traço um paralelo entre da Paris dos anos 1920 à Paris contemporânea, onde a flânerie tornou possível a Brassaï o encontro com os graffitti, que capta simultaneamente as paredes tatuadas da cidade e as inscrições da luz fotográfica, estabelecendo com uma humanidade noturna uma fraternidade que a câmera transfigura e eterniza. / This dissertation reviews aspects of the relation between plastic arts and the poetics of urban space reflecting on the trajectory and the photographic work of Gyula Halász, also known as Brassaï. Further than the referred reflection, whose objective implies the observation of a strict corpus, this study makes evident some issues inserted in wider contexts. From one side, it makes possible to grasp, by means of its singularity, the historical, economic, techno-scientific and social-cultural aspects that are relevant to the theme of modernity. From another side, these aspects are related to the investigation of creative dynamics, knowledge processes, urban cultures and mobility, which are present in the development of huge urban agglomerations that spread in the globe from the end of Second World War. Although the importance of all these objects of study were incontestable, its relations with recent past are not fully clear. Being presented in three chapters, this dissertation is organized in three parts which correspond to particular aspects of the artistic work of Brassaï. In the first chapter, I explore the relation between immigration nd Br ss ïs tr nsition to a new artistic perspective that transformed him in what Henry Miller described as the eye of P ris. The second chapter leads with the nocturnal esthetics by which Brassaï presented Paris, as much as with the cultural aspects of his lecture of the nocturne. The third chapter is linked with the exploration of the city and, particularly, with the technical approaches Brassaï used to describe events in an urban space illuminated by night. In the fourth and final chapter, which serves as final considerations of the research, we draw a parallel between the Paris of the 1920s to contemporary Paris, where dawdling made it possible to Brassaï the meeting with graffitti, which simultaneously captures the tattooed city walls and the inscriptions of the photographic light setting with a night humanity a fraternity that the camera transfigures and perpetuates.

L’objet d’étude de cette thèse porte sur les anciens lieux d’habitation parisiens d’André Kertész et de Brassaï, tels qu’ils existent aujourd’hui. Il repose sur une analyse de photographies puisées dans leurs archives et sur un travail de terrain effectué dans ces lieux désormais habités par d’autres occupants. La prise de contact avec les habitants actuels a été l’occasion d’une collaboration participative puisque ces images d’archives ont généré un travail de création collective : placés à différents postes, différents points de vue préalablement identifiés dans ces anciens clichés, ces habitants ont effectué eux-mêmes un travail de re-photographie simultané. Cette recherche est le résultat d’une expérience urbaine qui combine documentation, interprétation et création. L’étude de deux archives photographiques, nous a permis d’identifier sept intérieurs et de répertorier un corpus de cinquante-sept clichés d’époque. Le caractère social et interactif de notre méthode de travail vise à une meilleure appréhension de ces lieux d’habitation et de notre héritage culturel dans une perspective de transmission; l’aboutissement étant une production plastique, une image panoramique cumulant différentes époques dans un même espace. Pour l’étude des rapports relationnelles des images et la définition des champs de représentation et d’interprétation, nous nous sommes appuyés sur le schéma de l’intertextualité. Nous avons cherché des analogies permettant de comparer les créations re-photographiques avec le modèle genettien de l’intertextualité. Ce principe d’une organisation « intervisuelle » a été complété par des méthodes théoriques chronologiques, topographiques et médiatiques. / The topic of my thesis is the former dwelling places of two famous Hungarian photographers, André Kertész and Brassaï. It identifies the pieces of the archives which were made in the private spaces of the artists. The identification is carried out through getting into the flats, into the spaces. Getting in touch with the present occupants is the beginning of a collective creative work. The pictures are taken in these spaces, from different point of views, but at the same time. My work is a documentation of an urban experience with a structure of a network. The research, which is built on the visual content of the archives, presents factual results and interpretational creative activity as well. Seven found interiors and the two archives have been examined, 57 pictures have been identified, which shed light on new parts of the artists’ biographies. The social requirement of the method of working up serves the collective cognition of cultural memories, the discovery of one’s own living space and the possibilities of passing them on. The act of Rephotography, points towards the future and makes the recipient think on. To interpret the relative relationship between the pictures, the thesis examines the possible representative domains of the photographical metaphor of intertextuality. It looks for analogies which enable that the works made in intervisual spirit could be compared to Genette’s intertextuality and it completes the method of arrangement with further chronological, topographical and medial theoretical schemes.