FIAC. Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain
Kicken Berlin's Paris FIAC 2011 exhibit focuses on Czech Modernism from the 1920s and 1930s, avant-garde portraiture, and Aspects of Contemporary Color, among other highlights of modern and contemporary photography.

A pioneer in promoting major figures of Czech Modernist photography such as Frantisek Drtikol, Jaromir Funke, Jaroslav Rössler, and Josef Sudek, Rudolf Kicken has assembled a wide range of imagery, from sophisticated nudes to abstract forms, from poetic landscapes and still lifes to surreal staged scenes. Light abstractions, in which Funke particularly excelled, were also key subjects among other European Modernist masters, exemplified by the photograms of László Moholy-Nagy.

Charlotte Perriand, together with Fernand Léger and Pierre Jeanneret, pictured the poetry of the everyday in stones, driftwood, ice blocks, or industrial objects, in the series 'Objets à réaction poétique' (1931- 1936). 'Consciousness' by Paul Outerbridge, with its masterful staging and lighting of perfect forms, reflects a very different approach to still life composition. The booth's central cabinet will be dedicated to key pieces of avant-garde portraiture, including Irving Penn's strikingly staged portrait of Marlene Dietrich for Vogue, Erwin Blumenfeld's fashion figure and his grotesque 'Dictator' (1937). In his 'Metamorphosis through Light' series, Helmar Lerski strove to depict light's manifold affects on the human face. Diane Arbus, on the other hand, revealed social characteristics in her poignant portrait studies.

Color challenged the art of photography in the 20th century, and its subtle use has become a matter of course for the current generation, as in the colorfield studies of ever yday architecture of the Becher School's Götz Diergarten or Charles Fréger's most recent series 'Wilder Mann' (2010- 2011).