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Erwin Blumenfeld, Lydia Davis, Nigel Kennedy's Cultural Exchange

Fashion photographer Erwin Blumenfeld, Man Booker International winner Lydia Davis, and Nigel Kennedy's Cultural Exchange is 'Black and Blue' by Louis Armstrong. With John Wilson.

With John Wilson.

Berlin-born photographer Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969) was one of the most internationally sought-after portrait and fashion photographers in the 1940s and 1950s. America's leading magazines, including Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, hired him for his imaginative and highly individual shots. Erwin's grandson Remy and critic Joanna Pitman assess his legacy as a new exhibition Blumenfeld Studio: New York, 1941-1960 opens.

Lydia Davis won The Man Booker International Prize last night for a career which includes a novel, translations of Proust and Flaubert and a large repertoire of very short stories, some only one sentence long. She explains how momentary observations inspire her work, including something she spotted on the London Underground yesterday.

For Cultural Exchange, in which leading creative minds reflect on a favourite cultural experience,
violinist Nigel Kennedy selects Black and Blue, by Louis Armstrong.

John Constable's renowned landscape painting Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows has been bought for the nation at a price of £23.1m - a record figure for a work by Constable. Art reviewer William Feaver reflects on the painting's worth, and looks back at how it was received when first exhibited in 1831.

Producer Jerome Weatherald.

Available now

30 minutes

Chapters

  • Erwin Blumenfeld

    Remy Blumenfeld and critic Joanna Pitman reflect on photographer Erwin Blumenfield

    Duration: 09:10

  • Lydia Davis

    Lydia Davis on winning the Man Booker International Prize 2013

    Duration: 07:55

  • Constable at the Tate

    Art reviewer William Feaver on the Constable painting bought by the Tate for £23.1m

    Duration: 04:56

  • Cultural Exchange: Nigel Kennedy

    Nigel Kennedy chooses Black and Blue, by Louis Armstrong as his Cultural Exchange

    Duration: 07:14

Main Image

Erwin Blumenfeld, New York, Studio Color, 1961

copyright: The estate of Erwin Blumenfeld

Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows

Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows

John Constable
Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows,
exhibited 1831
oil on canvas
151.8 x 189.9 mm.
Purchased by Tate with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Manton Foundation the Art Fund and Tate Members in partnership with Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales, Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service, National Galleries of Scotland; and Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. 2013

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter John Wilson
Interviewed Guest Nigel Kennedy
Interviewed Guest Lydia Davis
Interviewed Guest Nigel Kennedy
Interviewed Guest William Feaver
Producer Jerome Weatherald
Editor John Goudie

Broadcast

  • Thu 23 May 2013 19:15

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