“Consuelo Kanaga. Catch the Spirit” options six many years of labor by this key determine within the historical past of recent Pictures. With this new challenge, Fundación MAPFRE renews its dedication to advertise the work of girls photographers. On this event, regardless of having garnered a lot notoriety in life, the artist’s work is in the present day surprisingly little recognized. This exhibition goals to contribute conclusively towards the popularity that Kanaga’s oeuvre undoubtedly deserves.

Consuelo Kanaga (Astoria, Oregon, 1894—Yorktown Heights, New York, 1978) was actually captivated with social justice. She was most fascinated about folks and points resembling marginalization, poverty, racial harassment, and inequality, significantly in relation to African People in the US. These had been a number of the basic issues she addressed via her work. Likewise, she additionally defended the formal and poetic potentialities of images as an artform.

An unconventional determine, Kanaga was in a position to turn out to be knowledgeable photojournalist in the US as early because the 1910s. She was additionally one of many few ladies concerned within the avant-garde circles each in San Francisco with the f.64 Group and in New York with the Picture League, whose friendship {and professional} assist paved the best way for different vital ladies photographers. Nevertheless, gender inequalities and social conventions restricted her capacity to dedicate herself utterly to her inventive work. Kanaga labored full time jobs throughout a few years and was solely in a position to follow her artwork on weekends. She repeatedly put her profession on maintain for her companions; these are however just a few explanation why her work just isn’t extra acknowledged in the present day.

Organized across the Brooklyn Museum’s assortment—the establishment that has preserved the artist’s archive—the exhibition options almost 180 pictures and a variety of documentary materials; contextualizing Consuelo Kanaga’s work whereas specializing in a few of her most iconic pictures and her portrayal of African American life within the Thirties via her images.

at KBr Fundación MAPFRE, Barcelona
till Could 12, 2024