PURE // Marc Lagrange

Exhibition Opening
Sunday, January 29, 2023
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

On Sunday 29 January, MPV Gallery will open a retrospective exhibition of the renowned photographer Marc Lagrange, with an extensive and versatile collection of work that summarizes his career as a photographer. We present work from the various photo series, including Senza Parole, Chocolate, Chateau Lagrange, Diamonds and Pearls, Lust, Polarized and the Platinum Collection.

People who have followed Marc Lagrange's multifaceted career will attest to his passion for light, craft and beauty. Marc Lagrange is known for his aesthetically pleasing nudes of women, yet he didn't like being called a "nude photographer". Nude was not a goal for him, but an aesthetic choice. Marc Lagrange had an exceptional talent for portraying breathtaking beauty and timeless elegance. His artistic oeuvre takes the viewer into a world where dreams and imagination are central.

Marc did much more than just take the photos. Decor and setting were largely his direction; he collected vintage accessories and played with different textures and backgrounds. Marc Lagrange tried to find a certain intimacy in his models; to bring a feeling of the inside out. He had to feel a connection with his models and that's why he sometimes worked with the same women for 10 to 15 years. He was a perfectionist, someone with an unstoppable vision. He could fit a full day's work into one image.

In the 2000s Marc started to work intensively with Polaroid film. His portraits of female beauty took on a more intense, poignant and artistic look. Lagrange was drawn to the immediacy of the Polaroid medium, which produced images in minutes, making it perfect for analog photographers to refine the image with nuances. Marc Lagrange saw the potential of the medium for his personal artistic vision and sense of aesthetics, the sensuality it radiates and that typical “je ne sais quoi” that makes his art so recognizable.

To him, this technique was at least as good as any other method he used, but eventually it became one of his trademarks. His Polaroids contain a deliberate spontaneity and mysticism, while also radiating a certain duality. With his work he created an authentic sense of beauty that juxtaposes permanence and significant immobility with the speed of our everyday world.

Lagrange was born in Kinshasa, Congo, in 1957. Lagrange was an engineer by training, but chose photography in 1991, preferring analogue photographs to digital ones. In recent years he has also focused on video productions. His big breakthrough came in 2006 with his exhibition Chateau Lagrange in the Antwerp Photo Museum FOMU.

The exhibition 'Pure' by Marc Lagrange can be seen from Sunday 29 January to Sunday 12 March at MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk.

For availability and prices, please email: info@mpvgallery.com