5 outstanding Annie Leibovitz photographs in Monaco exhibition
David Hockney, Bridlington, East Yorkshire, England, 2013 - 2024 © Annie Leibovitz - Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
The American photographer’s images are presented out of chronological order in an exhibition that focuses on visual associations rather than linear history. We take you on a guided tour.
Forget the usual chronological timeline. For ‘Stream of Consciousness’, photographer Annie Leibovitz has chosen a different approach at the Hauser & Wirth gallery in Monte-Carlo, following on from an exhibition in New York earlier this year. The one on show in the Principality until 27 September brings together a number of her works from the past twenty years in a free-association format.
By way of an introduction to the exhibition, the 75-year-old photographer has a simple explanation of her approach: “There are photographs that rhyme with others that were taken elsewhere, at other times. They are not linked at the time they were made.” The result is a journey where there is a dialogue between the images, creating unexpected echoes.
Portraits of stars and historical relics
Leibovitz’ selection fearlessly mixes genres. Recent portraits of Patti Smith, American architect Philip Johnson, painter David Hockney and Cindy Sherman rub shoulders with pictures of objects from America’s heritage: Elvis’s bullet-holed TV and shots of the James Webb telescope.
Federica Beretta, director of the Hauser & Wirth gallery in Monte-Carlo, feels this approach highlights Leibovitz’s unique eye: her ability to create meaning through visual proximity. Landscapes, still life shots and portraits interact, revealing the obsessions and intuitions of a photographer who has lived through half a century of American culture. We were particularly struck by five works:
1. On the road
The portrait, taken from the back of a car, shows David Hockney in full creative flow in a forest near Bridlington, where he worked and lived in the early 2010s. Annie Leibovitz captured the moment of creativity at a time when the painter’s health was fragile and his work featured the great wooded landscapes of Yorkshire. Blending themes of impermanence, creativity and nomadism, the shot resonates particularly with Annie Leibovitz’ life and work. “When she was a child, her family often travelled by car, as her father regularly changed military bases for his work with the US Army. Car windows frame her reality and her vision as an artist,” explains Federica Beretta.
2. Homage to Hopper
The painter Edward Hopper needs no introduction, and has greatly inspired Annie Leibovitz’ photographic aesthetic. In 2023, she brought back to life the painter’s romantic and artistic bond with his wife Joséphine, producing a series of photos in which two models embodied the couple. Taken as part of that series, this photograph shows the famous painter’s childhood home, in a contrast of light and life that evoke Hopper’s well-known and melancholy works. A 1946 watercolour by the painter shows his wife Jo in the front of a car in Wyoming, painting on canvas… a strange echo of the David Hockney photograph!
3. Fertile creativity
Both an ode to nature and a nod to female artists, “Annie Leibovitz chose to place this view of an ochre hill in New Mexico next to a photo of the artist Simone Leigh sculpting clay,” says Federica Beretta. Clay, the material that the artist shapes to bring a work of art to life. The hill, whose colour is reminiscent of clay soil, was a source of inspiration for the 20th century modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe.
4. Patti Smith
While fans of the punk rock singer will be familiar with the flamboyant image Annie Leibovitz took of her in 1978 for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, it is a more private side of herself that Patti Smith reveals in this photo, taken in her MacDougal Street flat. Echoing the black and white portrait taken in 1996 in New York, the American is seen in her everyday setting, looking sideways, in a relaxed position on her sofa.
5. Mosaic
“We start or finish the exhibition with what Annie Leibovitz calls the pin wall. She lets us get into her head and understand how she thinks about and prepares an exhibition,” explains the Hauser & Wirth gallery director. Like a grand finale – but not really, as you will have gathered – the photographer has put together this immense wall to symbolise the association of ideas that drives the exhibition.
Useful info:
Until Saturday 27 September 2025 Opening times: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm. Free admission. More: hauserwirth.com