Alex Trusty. Contemporary Museum Watching

Palazzo Reale Milan, March 2 - April 1, 2024

On the occasion of the eighth edition of Museocity, Palazzo Reale Milan
presents photographer Alex Trusty's monographic exhibition that, in 62 shots, captures the viewer in front of the artwork in museums around the world

From March 2, 2024, Palazzo Reale will host the monographic exhibition "Contemporary Museum Watching," by photographer Alex Trusty, a tribute to the artistic process and enjoyment of works of art, on public display for the first time.

The exhibition is part of Museocity, the artistic and cultural schedule promoted by the City of Milan together with the Museocity Association, and dialogues with the theme chosen for this year's edition, "Worlds in Milan."

Contemporary Museum Watching collects, in fact, 62 shots - taken from a selection of about 25. 000 photographs taken over nearly a decade (2015-2023) in more than 80 museums around the world - that depict viewers in contemplation in front of works of art: from the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan to the Galleria Borghese in Rome, from the Vatican Museums to the Archaeological Museum in Naples, passing through numerous international institutions, such as the National Gallery in London, MOMA in New York, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Musée Magritte in Brussels and the Museum Palace in Taiwan, to name a few.

Alex Trusty has an educated and curious eye: it is not surprising to find him visiting museums and exhibitions, where what attracts him is everything that happens in front of, or around, a work of art, and in particular what, in the photographer's eyes, is a complementary part of the work, namely the viewer in contemplation.

Alex Trusty has always been fascinated by the subjective reactions of each visitor in front of works, whether famous or not: everyone is drawn to the most disparate elements and it is often impossible to understand which ones, because they are also suggested by intimate and personal motivations.

That is why Alex Trusty roams the halls of museums hunting for furtive shots, practicing a kind of "art watchers watching," as the great Elliott Erwitt called it.

In the process of processing the shot Alex Trusty resorts to a game of perception, bringing the viewer inside the painting and creating analogies of shapes and colors between work and viewer, in a kind of optical trap.

Such as the young girl "captured" and rendered as motionless forever in the Grande Jatte painted by Georges Seurat (Art Institute of Chicago) or the woman taken by the hand by a disturbing nude in the Ludwig Museum in Cologne.

Other protagonists of Alex Trusty's photography are museums, whose architectures themselves become works of art: buildings, galleries and museum spaces with which the viewer interacts even before approaching the work of art. An example of this is the shot of Milan Cathedral, immortalized by the Museo del Novecento through the arches of the Palazzo dell'Arengario.

Special thanks to Marco Casciello for involving Studio Rufus in this photographic journey by Alex Trusty that explores the relationship between art and observer from a novel point of view.