Born in Paris of Romanian parents, Lotar was a Surrealist filmmaker and photographer in the circle of René Clair, Luis Buñuel, Germaine Krull, and André Kertész. In 1929 he accepted a commission from the review Documents, the voice of a Surrealist splinter group headed by Georges Bataille, to illustrate the word abattoir (“slaughterhouse”) in the “Dictionary” section of the journal. In response, Lotar produced a photographic reportage of unsparing realism. His images are particularly shocking for their juxtapositions of killing on the one hand and banal order on the other. This subject is an array of amputated calves’ feet.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Aux abbatoirs de La Villette
Artist:Eli Lotar (French, 1905–1969)
Date:1929
Medium:Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:Image: 22.2 x 16.2 cm (8 3/4 x 6 3/8 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Gilman Collection, Purchase, Denise and Andrew Saul Gift, 2005
Accession Number:2005.100.303
Inscription: Stamped in ink on print, verso TR: "JULIEN LEVY GALLERY, INC // 15 EAST 57th STREET // NEW YORK CITY"; stamped in red ink on print, verso C: "mention obligatoire // foto ELI LOTAR [boxed]"; inscribed in pencil on print, verso TL: "26/10 // 960"; inscribed in pencil on print, verso C: "210 mm"
Estate of Jacob Bean; [Julien Levy]; (sold, Sotheby's Sale 6468, Oct. 7, 1993, Lot 375); Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Modern Times: Photography Between the Two World Wars," June 9–October 4, 1998.
Carrousel du Louvre, Paris. "Constructed Views: Photography and Architecture," November 19, 1998–November 23, 1998.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "On Photography: A Tribute to Susan Sontag," June 6–September 4, 2006.
Centre Georges Pompidou. "La Subversion des images. Surréalisme, photographie, film.," September 23, 2009–January 4, 2010.
Fotomuseum Winterthur. "La Subversion des images. Surréalisme, photographie, film.," February 26, 2010–May 24, 2010.
Fundación Mapfre. "La Subversion des images. Surréalisme, photographie, film.," June 16, 2010–September 12, 2010.
Vancouver Art Gallery. "The Colour of My Dreams: Surrealism and Revolution in Art," May 28, 2011–October 2, 2011.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Paris as Muse: Photography, 1840s – 1930s," January 27–May 4, 2014.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Fatal Attraction: Piotr Uklański Selects from the Met Collection," March 17–June 14, 2015.
Krauss, Rosalind E., and Jane Livingston. L'amour Fou: Photography and Surrealism. Washington, D.C.: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1985. fig. 147.
Bois, Yve-Alain, and Rosalind E. Krauss. Formless: A User's Guide. 1st ed. New York: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1997. p. 45, fig. 15.
Bajac, Quentin, and Clement Cheroux. La Subversion des Images: Surréalisme, Photographie, Film. Paris: Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, 2009. p. 134.
Ades, Dawn, ed. The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 2011. p. 48.
Uklański, Piotr. Piotr Uklański: Fatal Attraction. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 2015. p. 243.
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