RALPH GIBSON • VU, IMPRÉVU

VENET FOUNDATION
FROM 22 MAY TO 30 SEPTEMBER 2025
OPENING XX

In 2017, after spending many hours with Ralph Gibson in his New York studio, Thierry Bigaignon, his Parisian dealer, realized that music was just as important to the artist as photography—and had been for over 70 years! He then proposed an innovative project that would combine these two passions. The concept was simple: select about fifteen iconic and deeply personal images to Ralph, and compose original music for each one. Ralph Gibson embraced the challenge, and less than two years later, the Vu, Imprévu series was born.

This project offers collectors a unique opportunity to explore another facet of the American master’s genius. A world-renowned photographer, celebrated for his groundbreaking visual vocabulary in the 1970s with his Black Trilogy—The Somnambulist (1970), Déjà-Vu (1973), and Days at Sea (1974)—Ralph Gibson is also a talented guitarist.

He discovered the guitar at age 13 and picked up a camera four years later. Since then, he has remained an eternal apprentice, believing there is always more to learn from both instruments. For Gibson, melody in music is to music what reality is to photography. Both music and photography are systems of imagery that share a sense of abstraction. Reality is the purest form of abstraction, and music is the most abstract of languages.

Vu, Imprévu presents a rare opportunity to revisit fifteen of Ralph Gibson's most iconic photographs from a completely new perspective. The selected photographs, taken between 1968 and 1990, are each paired with a piece of music, specially composed, performed, and recorded by the artist in his New York studio. Significant attention has been paid to the presentation of these works. The pristine black-and-white gelatin silver prints, each in a limited edition of 3, are crafted with extraordinary precision. The handwritten score, signed by the artist, is inscribed on the back of each frame. Additionally, each frame, designed specifically for the gallery, includes an NFC chip, allowing for contactless listening to the associated piece of music via a smartphone—truly an innovative touch.

For Ralph Gibson, “music resonates with photography in that the act and the idea are one and the same—simultaneous. Music is a universal language, and every work of art strives to emulate it. Close your eyes, and a photograph becomes no more than an abstract memory. Music, on the other hand, cannot be ignored. Ears have no eyelids.”

The exhibition is also accompanied by a video work, which serves as another format through which to blend images and music, a medium to which Ralph attaches great significance. "I’ve been working on Music for Lens and Guitar, my video and music suite, for 15 years. To present it here at the foundation of my lifelong friend Bernar Venet is truly an honor."