Image: Richard Avedon, Roger Tims, Jim Duncan, Leonard Markley and Don Belak, coal miners, Reliance, Wyoming, August 29, 1979 © The Richard Avedon Foundation. On view at Fundación Mapfre, Recoletos Exhibition Hall, Madrid
Richard Avedon’s photographic series ‘In the American West, 1979–1984’ is on view in its entirety for the first time in Spain at Fundación Mapfre’s Recoletos Exhibition Hall in Madrid. The exhibition, which brings together 110 reference prints selected and worked on by Avedon, runs from June 6 through August 30, 2026.
The prints are presented alongside archival material documenting the making and reception of the project. The display includes preliminary Polaroids, test prints bearing Avedon’s handwritten notes, and correspondence between the photographer and his models. The works on view are the master prints used for Avedon’s 1985 book ‘In the American West’ and for the exhibition that accompanied its original presentation.
The series emerged from a commission by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas, where it was exhibited in 1985. Abrams published the photobook in the same year. The Madrid presentation is organized by the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in collaboration with Fundación Mapfre, with works loaned by The Richard Avedon Foundation. It follows an earlier presentation at the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris.
‘In the American West’ marked a significant turn in Avedon’s career. Born in New York in 1923, the photographer had spent decades working in fashion photography and making portraits of public figures. Before beginning the project, he had exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and had worked as a staff photographer for ‘Vogue’, producing many of the magazine’s covers.
For the series, Avedon focused on people from the working class of the American West, including individuals whose occupations and circumstances are identified in the titles of the photographs. Fundación Mapfre describes the project as a reflection on American society through portraiture. Its stark contrast with Avedon’s earlier fashion and celebrity work initially generated controversy, while the series ultimately expanded into a broader examination of human experience beyond its specific geographical and historical setting.
The exhibition is curated by Clément Chéroux, director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson. The work Fundación Mapfre features on its exhibition page is ‘Roger Tims, Jim Duncan, Leonard Markley and Don Belak, coal miners, Reliance, Wyoming, August 29, 1979’; ‘Sandra Bennett, twelve year old, Rocky Ford, Colorado, August 23, 1980’ is among the images highlighted in Gagosian’s listing of the show. The exhibition is at Paseo Recoletos 23, Madrid, and is in its final week, closing on Sunday, August 30, 2026.
