2016 – “American Painters” Book
2016,
Works
In 1976, Annabelle d’Huart was twenty-three years old and decided to go to New York City armed with a Leica CL to create an artists book focusing on American minimalist painters. While Parisian avant-garde magazines wrote about these artists, the articles were impenetrable and few images circulated. Upon arriving in New York, Annabelle met Leo Castelli who welcomed her into his gallery and introduced her to Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol Lewitt, Brice Marden, Robert Morris, Robert Ryman, Richard Serra, Frank Stella and Cy Twombly. Annabelle met many of the artists in his gallery and could work freely from there.
Her goal was to translate their creative process into image form and capture the essence of these artists. The photos tell the story of each artist and the challenges they gave themselves. To do this, she stayed as close as possible to each of them while remaining near invisible to avoid her presence influencing the photos and betraying them.
She intuitively understood the personality of each artist and adapted her behaviour accordingly. The exchange reveals a side of their creative process that is rarely, if ever, seen and captures a
profound understanding of the artists, their works and modus operandi.
Conceived in 1976, a book, American Painters, was finally printed forty years later, in 2016.