exhibition

Eve Arnold in China

30.Oct.07 - 12.Jan.08
Mon-Sat 10-6

Asia House
63 New Cavendish St
London W1G 7LP
020 7307 5454
enquiries@asiahouse.co.uk
www.asiahouse.org
Tube Regents Park, Bond Street, Mayfair / Cork Street

In 1979, American photo-journalist Eve Arnold (born 1912) became one of the first Western photographers to enter China. The extraordinary body of work that resulted was shown at the Brooklyn Museum, New York in 1980 but has never been the focus of an exhibition in the UK. Asia House is proud to be collaborating with Magnum Photos to show an exhibition of 40 of these photographs brought together for the first time in London.
Eve Arnold writes, “In China, 1979 marked a period of easing towards the West. For the first time after almost a generation of secrecy, the Chinese government was taking its own people (and the outside world) into its confidence. The official organ, the Xinhua News Agency, was reporting basic information and statistics on employment, the national income, the budget, the harvest, industrial quotas, consumer goods, and much else that had been a mystery before. To get people moving, economic incentives were to replace ideology. The Chinese were taking a heavy gamble that they could become a world power by the year 2000. It was a time of openness that made my work a joy.”In 1979, American photo-journalist Eve Arnold (born 1912) became one of the first Western photographers to enter China. The extraordinary body of work that resulted was shown at the Brooklyn Museum, New York in 1980 but has never been the focus of an exhibition in the UK. Asia House is proud to be collaborating with Magnum Photos to show an exhibition of 40 of these photographs brought together for the first time in London. Eve Arnold writes, “In China, 1979 marked a period of easing towards the West. For the first time after almost a generation of secrecy, the Chinese government was taking its own people (and the outside world) into its confidence. The official organ, the Xinhua News Agency, was reporting basic information and statistics on employment, the national income, the budget, the harvest, industrial quotas, consumer goods, and much else that had been a mystery before. To get people moving, economic incentives were to replace ideology. The Chinese were taking a heavy gamble that they could become a world power by the year 2000. It was a time of openness that made my work a joy.”
Eve Arnold was the first female member of Magnum Photos, joining in 1955. Perhaps bestknown for her work with film star Marilyn Monroe, with whom she had a long-standing working relationship, Arnold has also spent considerable time throughout a long career recording her extensive travels around the world. She was elected Master Photographer by the New York International Center of Photography (ICP) in 1995, the highest accolade for a photographer. She came to Britain in 1962 and has been based in the UK ever since.
Katriana Hazell, Cultural Director of Asia House writes “In 2008 an international focus will turn with greater attention to China, with the forthcoming Beijing Olympics coupled with the country’s continuing economic and artistic explosion. Eve Arnold’s pictures are some of the abiding images of our age and it is timely to look again at these photographs of China and note how our perceptions of this fascinating country have shifted and evolved in the intervening three decades”.