Paolo Monti - Serie fotografica - BEIC 6346633

Ugo Mulas (28 August 1928 – 2 March 1973) was an Italian

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...

noted for his

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...

s of artists and his

street photography Street photography (also sometimes called candid photography) is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Although there is a difference between street and ca ...

Life and work

Mulas began his studies in law in 1948 in Milan, but left to take art courses at the Brera Fine Arts Academy. In 1954 he was asked to cover the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, his first professional assignment. He went on to photograph every Venice Biennale through 1972 and to document his work in an art book. Mulas worked for a number of Italian magazines and did commercial work for advertising campaigns including clients such as Pirelli and

Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been par ...

. In 1959 in Florence, he discovered

Veruschka Vera Lehndorff (German: Vera Anna Gottliebe Gräfin von Lehndorff; born 14 May 1939), known professionally as Veruschka, is a German aristocrat, model, actress and artist. She is considered the "first German supermodel.“ Early life von Lehn ...

who later became a well-known model and artist. While covering the

Spoleto Festival The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of conce ...

in 1962, he befriended sculptor

Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and hi ...

, who later became a major subject of Mulas' photography and writings. While photographing the 1964 Venice Biennale, Mulas met several American artists, art critics, and the art dealer Leo Castelli. This meeting led to his travel to New York City and his documentation of the Pop art scene. This trip to New York and Mulas' resulting book and exhibits, ''New York, the New Art Scene'' became his best known work. The exhibit included enlargements of Mulas' contact sheets and environmental portraits of Robert Rauschenberg,

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

, Barnett Newman and Roy Lichtenstein. Mulas died in Milan following several years of serious illness.

Legacy

* The indie band,

Spoon A spoon is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl (also known as a head), oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery (sometimes called flatware in the United States), especially as part of a place setting, it is used primarily f ...

chose Mulas' 1963 portrait of American sculptor

Lee Bontecou Lee Bontecou (January 15, 1931 – November 8, 2022) was an American sculptor and printmaker and a pioneer figure in the New York art world. She kept her work consistently in a recognizable style, and received broad recognition in the 1960s. Bont ...

for their 2007 CD, ''

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga ''Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga'' is the sixth studio album by American rock band Spoon. It was first released on July 10, 2007, through Merge Records and Anti-. It received critical acclaim and appeared on several year-end album lists. The album debuted at nu ...

''.Pitchfork.com

References

General references

* ''Ugo Mulas''. By Germano Celant. Federico Motta Editore, 1993. .

Publications

* ''New York; the new art scene''. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967. * ''David Smith in Italy''. By David Smith and Mulas, Charta, 1997. . * ''Vent'anni di Biennale, 1954-1972''. Mondadori, 1988. . * ''Calder''. By Mulas and H. Harvard Arnason, Studio, 1971. . *''Calder''. By Mulas, Milan: Officina Libraria, 2008. .

External links

Mulas' website
Portrait photographers Photographers from Milan 1928 births 1973 deaths Brera Academy alumni {{italy-photographer-stub