Compositions of Earth
Robert Adams

Mutina for Art is pleased to present Compositions of Earth, the exhibition project dedicated to Robert Adams, developed for the spaces of Casa Mutina Milano. The show—the artist’s first solo exhibition in Italy—features a selection of iconic images from the 1970s and the 1980s by the great American photographer set in dialogue with a display of terracotta multiform brick walls.

Robert Adams captures through his photographs the beauty and solemnity of nature, exploring themes such as the relationship between man and landscape, urbanization and the implications of relentless environmental transformations.

The exhibition path of Compositions of Earth tackles the main subjects explored by Adams, who, through an intimate and profound gaze, has focused on the desolate American West and composed a unique portrait which is both essential and lyric.

The exhibition display created for the occasion—thanks to the intertwining patterns of bricks from the Mutina collections—provides a different setting for each room. The walls, imposing yet light in the textures defining them, emphasise earth in its natural colour. Adams’s research has centred on earth and interpreted it as territory. His images bear witness to both the overwhelming power of the landscape and the encounter with those who have shaped it.

Adams’s lens has always captured a silent and pure beauty. The beauty of the vast prairies where animals, clouds, or roads draw orderly landscapes, and that of light which multiplies shadows and redefines every interior or exterior space. Between sublime calm and unstoppable metamorphosis, Adams obtains perspectives which shape emotions. His compositions reflect an intellectual and poetic vision of the world, which is inseparable from its change.

The exhibition, curated by Sarah Cosulich, presents a selection of photographs by Robert Adams from the collection of Massimo Orsini, CEO of Mutina.

Mutina thanks Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, for the collaboration.