Joan Fontcuberta
Editions Bessard
2014
146 pages, 20x23cm
Hard cover
Texts by Joan Fontcuberta, Slavoj Fried
English
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In 1914, Josep Galceran Trepat created an industry for the production of agricultural machinery that would become one of Spain's economic driving forces during the twentieth century. A cultured man, attentive to the dynamics of the art of his time, Trepat commissioned some of the great masters of international photography to design the advertising and corporate image of his company. He was a connoisseur and very passionate about the work of Man Ray, Albert Renger-Patzsch, László Moholy Nagy, Alexander Rodchenko, Charles Sheeler, Walker Evans and many other historical avant-garde photographers who found in industrial forms an inspiring universe that would translate into a complete aesthetic renovation.
A century after its foundation, the Trepat Collection reveals itself as an unknown treasure in the history of photography. The MACSA (Museum of Archeology of Agricultural Systems), in collaboration with the historical archive Trepat Tarrega (Lleida), has decided to present an exhibition commemorating the centenary of the Trepat factories. Edited by Joan Fontcuberta, himself a creator but also historian and author of numerous works on the history of Spanish photography. This book published by Éditions Bessard accompanies the exhibition. In his introductory essay, the curator writes: “Looking at these works from a historical perspective and beyond its purely utilitarian origins, the images here masterfully show the experimental path of avant-garde movements: from cubism to new objectivity, from preciosism to surrealism, from constructivism to social realism...".