Legendary Photog's First Major Commercial Show

By Sushuma January 29, 2000 9:43 AM

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PARIS (AP) -- Henri Matisse, aging and infirm, grips a struggling dove in one hand and sketches intensely with the other.?A shriveled old woman from Cape Cod celebrates the Fourth of July with an American flag draped around her neck.?Familiar and still poignant decades after they were shot by Henri Cartier-Bresson, these images are among 90 black-and-white photographs on sale in what is being billed as the first commercial exhibit by France's most famous living photographer.?Widely credited with bringing the sensitive eye of a trained artist to photojournalism, Cartier-Bresson, 91, was on hand -- somewhat reluctantly -- for the VIP opening at the Claude Bernard gallery in Paris last week.?The show, which runs until February 26, brings together Cartier-Bresson's most famous shots taken around the globe between 1932 and 1999.?Cartier-Bresson turned his back on a lucrative family textile business to study art at the age of 20.?He went on to found the legendary Magnum photo agency in 1947 and became known for seemingly simple shots of ordinary people in ordinary situations.?Read more ...

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