ANNIE LEIBOVITZ

Travelling from Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street, this exhibition presents a group of works—landscapes, still lifes and portraits—made by the distinguished American artist over the last two decades. Forgoing a linear timeline and conventional thematic constraints, the exhibition reveals Leibovitz’s associative thought processes and the fluid visual dialogue created among photographs that call attention to significant cultural markers of our time.

This is Leibovitz’s first exhibition in Monaco and follows her induction into the prestigious Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 2024, the most recent achievement for the highly decorated artist, who was made a Commandeur in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2006.

‘Stream of Consciousness’ features both familiar images of iconic writers, performers and visual artists—Amy Sherald, Billie Eilish and Salman Rushdie are among them—and images that have rarely been exhibited publicly before. These include the Selldorf suite of photographs, depicting the historic Frick Collection in New York City whilst under construction. Annabelle Selldorf had been charged with the sensitive task of renovating the museum and had spoken to Leibovitz about the design challenges she was addressing. The photographs on view were taken just days after Leibovitz returned from a visit with Selldorf at the architect’s home in Maine.

‘Stream of Consciousness’ includes portraits of contemporary cultural figures such as Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and Stephen Hawking alongside images of landscapes, interiors and historical ephemera—Abraham Lincoln’s top hat and Elvis Presley’s bullet-riddled television. The associative juxtapositions show Leibovitz’s diverse range of subjects and ability to balance intimacy and theatricality, the exquisitely personal and the grandly universal. Her eye is guided by intuition and a preternatural sense of narrative.