Gas Natural SDG : Fenosa Museum of Contemporary Art opens photographer Maude Schuyler Clay’s first exhibition in Spain

• La exhibition, entitledMississippi History, includes a selection of 80 photographs by the US artist that tell stories and reveal portraits of the river she was born on, the Mississippi.

• Maude Schuyler Clay's work, which forms part of such collections as those at the MoMA, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington), can be visited at the MAC until 15 October 2017.

The Gas Natural Fenosa Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) presents Mississippi History, an exhibition by renowned North American photographer Maude Schuyler Clay which is coming to Spain for the first time. Exploring the landscapes around the river she was born on (Mississippi), the artist has created an exhibition that tells the stories that surround it, preferring the everyday over the exotic, and the apparently mundane over the spectacular.

For MAC Director Carmen Fernández Rivera, this exhibition'is a great opportunity to see the colourful photographs of this recognised US artist for the first time in our country, and I encourage anyone with an interest in this art form to come and take a look.'

Maude Schuyler Clay's work reflect the human relationships and feelings of her relatives, friends and everyone else who lives in this region of the southern United States. In the words of the artist herself, 'colour and light are inseparable elements of my work, and I like to take pictures of relatives, friends and other people I know.'

After studying at the University of Mississippi and the Memphis College of Art, Maude Schuyler Clay (Greenwood, Mississippi, 1953) worked as an assistant to the famous photographer William Eggleston (Memphis, Tennessee, 1939). She lived for a time in New York, where she worked as a photographer and editor for such magazines as Esquire, Fortune and Vanity Fair. At present, residing in the town of Sumner, she focuses on pictures of both the landscape and daily life in the Mississippi Delta.

The exhibition, which includes a selection of 80 photographs, is curated by Alain D'Hooghe (Brussels, 1955), a photography publisher, author, historian and professor, and a curator of numerous exhibitions in Belgium and France.

Maude Schuyler Clay's work, which forms part of such collections as those at the MoMA, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington), can be visited until 15 October 2017.

Mississippi History by Maude Schuyler Clay

Maude Schuyler Clay was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, in the southern United States. After studying at the University of Mississippi and the Memphis College of Art, she was assistant to the important photographer William Eggleston, her cousin, who, in 1975, gave her the Rolleiflex she has used ever since for taking her colour portraits.

She lived in New York for several years, where she worked for a time at the famous Light Gallery and, later on, as a photographer and iconography manager for such magazines as Esquire, Fortune and Vanity Fair, among others.

When she moved back home in 1987, she continued her portrait work, which has garnered her numerous distinctions. The 50 images that comprise Mississippi History, published by Steidl in 2015, were from this time.

In 1993 she started to photograph the delta landscapes in black and white with a large format camera, which became the origins of the book Delta Land, published in 1999 by University Press of Mississippi. Between 1998 and 2002, she held the post of photography editor at the literary magazine The Oxford American.

Using intimacy to access the universal, Maude Schuyler Clay tells us numerous stories of her own and of the people, relatives and friends who surround her. They refer to human relationships and feelings, these intertwined stories that, when considered as a whole, make up History itself. The essence of Mississippi History lies with those who are close to the photographer, whether that proximity is familiar or friendship, geographic or, in even more general lines, genuinely historical.

Gas Natural Fenosa Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC)

The Gas Natural Fenosa Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) is a multidisciplinary centre for contemporary culture. It is a dynamic, flexible and open space that combines exhibitions with public involvement and participation, in order to stimulate artistic creation in all areas of culture.

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) has been establishing itself over the years not just as an exhibition venue but as a meeting place too for artists, art-lovers and the public, offering an extensive programme of cultural, educational, social and artistic activities that include temporary exhibitions, lecture series and workshops for schools and professionals.

The Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation has shifted its activities towards more social issues, which is why it has grouped all its cultural activities together and integrated them into the museum. The Museum of Contemporary Art is now part of the Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation, joining the ranks of the Gas Museum in Sabadell and the Bolarque Hydropower Plant Museum in Guadalajara.

A Coruña, 11 May 2017.

Press Dossier

Maude Schuyler

Images

The photographer Maude Schuyler and one of her pieces.