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Quentin Bajac

Quentin Bajac (born 1965) is a French museum curator and art historian specialising in the history of photography. He is currently the director of the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume (National Gallery of the Real Tennis Court) in Paris.

Bajac has held positions at the Musée d'Orsay (1995–2003), Centre Georges Pompidou (2003–2010), Musée National d'Art Moderne and École du Louvre (2010–2013) and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (2013–2018).

He has published a number of works on photography, most notably the three-volume series——on the history of photography (2000–2010), which belongs to the collection Découvertes Gallimard, as well as Parr by Parr: Discussions with a Promiscuous Photographer (2011), Stephen Shore: Solving Pictures (2017), Being Modern: MoMA in Paris (co-author with Olivier Michelon, 2017).

In 2013 Bajac was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Career

After gaining a diploma of the Institut national du patrimoine, Bajac was appointed Curator of Photography at the Musée d'Orsay in 1995 before joining the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2003, where he has been an associate curator in the Photography Department. In 2010, he was appointed Head of the at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, and a professor at the École du Louvre. In January 2013, he was appointed The Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. Bajac remained in that post at MoMA until becoming director of the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris in November 2018.

Bajac has curated various exhibitions on 19th-century and contemporary photography, in particular, he organised (1998), (1999), (2000), (2000), (2003), William Klein (2005), (2009), and (2012). As the chief curator of photography at MoMA, he organised A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio (2014), Scenes for a New Heritage: Contemporary Art from the Collection (2015), and Stephen Shore (2018).

Honours

series

  • L'image révélée : L'invention de la photographie, coll. « Découvertes Gallimard » (nº 414), série Arts. Paris: Gallimard, 2001
  • US edition – The Invention of Photography, "Abrams Discoveries" series. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002
  • UK edition – The Invention of Photography: The First Fifty Years, ‘New Horizons’ series. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002
  • La photographie : L'époque moderne 1880-1960, coll. « Découvertes Gallimard » (nº 473), série Arts. Paris: Gallimard, 2005
  • Après la photographie ? : De l'argentique à la révolution numérique, coll. « Découvertes Gallimard » (nº 559), série Arts. Paris: Gallimard, 2010

Publications

  • L'ABCdaire du Musée d'Orsay, Flammarion, 1999
  • Tableaux vivants. Fantaisies photographiques victoriennes, 1840-1880, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1999
  • With Alain Sayag & Martine d'Astier, Lartigue : l'album d'une vie, 1894-1986, 2003
  • With Christian Caujolle, The Abrams Encyclopedia of Photography, Harry N. Abrams, 2004
  • With Clément Chéroux, Collection photographies : une histoire de la photographie à travers les collections du Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne, coédition Centre Pompidou/Steidl, 2007
  • With C. Chéroux, La subversion des images : surréalisme, photographie, film, Éd. du Centre Pompidou, 2009
  • Le corps en éclats, Éd. du Centre Pompidou, 2009
  • Miroslav Tichy, Éd. du Centre Pompidou, 2009
  • La photographie, du daguerréotype au numérique, coll. « Découvertes Gallimard Hors série ». Paris: Gallimard, 2010
  • Clément Chéroux ed., with Man Ray, Man Ray : Portraits : Paris - Hollywood - Paris, Éd. du Centre Pompidou, 2010
  • Man Ray: Portraits : Paris, Hollywood, Paris : from the Man Ray Archives of the Centre Pompidou, Prestel Pub, 2011
  • With Martin Parr, Le mélange des genres, Textuel, 2010
  • Parr by Parr: Quentin Bajac Meets Martin Parr : Discussions with a Promiscuous Photographer, Schilt, 2010
  • Mimmo Jodice. Les Yeux du Louvre, Paris/Arles, coéd. Musée du Louvre/Actes Sud, 2011
  • With , Brassaï, le flaneur nocturne, Gallimard, 2012
  • Robert Doisneau : « Pêcheur d'images », coll. « Découvertes Gallimard » (nº 581), série Arts. Paris: Gallimard, 2012
  • With Olivier Michelon, Being Modern: MoMA in Paris, Thames & Hudson, 2017
  • Stephen Shore: Solving Pictures, Thames & Hudson, 2017

References