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Magnum Photos

Where Ideas are Born
2 June 2022 – 16 October 2022

Magnum Photos: Where Ideas are Born ran from 2 June 2022 – 16 October 2022.

This fascinating exhibition went in search of the places where creativity takes shape and where ideas are born – the artist’s studio. Bringing together more than 20 famous photographers from the world-renowned Magnum photography agency, it included over 60 photo portraits of the artists who created art history in the 20th century.

A woman with bright red hair, wearing a yellow and black patterned shirt, hunched over a round, polka-dotted table or surface. She appears to be working on something, and the background is completely black.
Artist and writer Yayoi Kusama in her Shinjuku studio, Tokyo, 2016 (c) Alex Majoli, Magnum Photos

About the
exhibition

In a series of revealing and characteristic images, artists such as Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Francis Bacon, Ai Weiwei and Yayoi Kusama can all be seen in their creative environments. These range from the cramped ateliers of the Parisian avant-garde at the beginning of the 20th century, to the American pop artists’ New York lofts, and the highly professional, capacious studios of the international stars of the contemporary art market. The photographs, taken by such luminaries as Martin Parr, Inge Morath and Abbas, are the result of an attempt to capture the precise moments when the spark of creativity takes hold, and new ideas are born.