[press release]
UBS announced today an international tour of newly commissioned photographs by world-renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz focusing on portraits of women. Launching in London in January, the exhibition will travel to 10 global cities in 12 months. Host cities will include Tokyo, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico City, Istanbul, Frankfurt, New York, and Zurich. Access will be free to the public.
The new work is a continuation of a project Leibovitz began over fifteen years ago, when she published a book of portraits made in collaboration with Susan Sontag. That book, Women, was accompanied by an exhibition that opened at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Women is Leibovitz’s most enduringly popular series of photographs and she has long wanted to expand her exploration of the subject. The new portraits, in an exhibition also to be called Women, will reflect the changes in the roles of women today.
Aligned with the focus UBS places on education, learning programmes will accompany the exhibition presented in partnership with cultural organizations around the world. These initiatives will explore ways of seeing through photography, working with young people in local communities.
The new photographs will form part of the UBS Art Collection– one of the world’s most important corporate collections of contemporary art comprising more than 35,000 works.
Annie Leibovitz (b. 1949) has been making witty, powerful images documenting popular culture since the early 1970s, when her work began appearing in Rolling Stone. She became the magazine’s chief photographer in 1973, and ten years later began working for Vanity Fair and then Vogue. Her large and distinguished body of work encompasses some of the most well-known portraits of our time. Exhibitions of Leibovitz’s work have been shown at museums and galleries around the world including the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the International Center of Photography in New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; the National Portrait Gallery in London; and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her work is held in museum collections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. to the National Portrait Gallery in London. She has published several collections of photographs and is the recipient of many honors. In 2006 she was made a Commandeur in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. In 2009, she received the International Center of Photography’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the first Creative Excellence Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors, and the Centenary Medal of the Royal Photographic Society in London. In 2012, she was the recipient of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art Award to Distinguished Women in the Arts and the Wexner Prize. In 2013 she received the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. She has been designated a Living Legend by the Library of Congress.
About the UBS Art Collection
Widely recognized as one of the most important corporate contemporary art collections in the world, the UBS Art Collection is made up of more than 35,000 objects by the newest talents to some of the most famous artists of the last 50 years, including paintings, photographs, drawings, prints, video art and sculpture. Housed in over 700 buildings located in over 50 countries it is a collection that continues to develop and grow, mirroring the geography and growth of the bank itself. The key ambition is that the collection is focused on UBS’s goal of supporting culture in the places where we do business all over the world, and stimulating creativity within the culture of UBS itself. UBS regularly loans works to art museums around the world, thereby also making the collection available for the enjoyment of the wider public. The contemporary photography collection incorporates work by Tina Barney; Candida Höfer; Pipolotti Rist; Cindy Sherman; and Sam Taylor Wood, amongst others. Recent acquisitions include work by Thomas Demand.
www.ubs.com/artcollection
About UBS and Contemporary Art
UBS is proud to be one of the leading supporters of contemporary art globally, amongst financial institutions and has a rich history of supporting cultural and artistic endeavors that enable active participation in the art world. We share our passion for contemporary art with our clients and the public through partnerships with leading cultural institutions, as well as the sponsorship of exhibitions internationally. The depth of our commitment to cultural and educational programs gives us unique access to experts from the world’s most esteemed museums, galleries and art fairs. These resources, augmented by in-house curators, help our clients, employees and the public explore, interpret and collect art. More than a sponsor or supporter of contemporary art, UBS participates in the international conversation about art and the global art market and seeks to promote the cultural and creative development of art communities internationally.