"WOMEN: New Portraits" - a Global Tour of New Photographs by Annie Leibovitz Launches in London

"WOMEN: New Portraits" an exhibition of newly commissioned photographs by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz will open to the public on Saturday 16 January 2016 at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. Following London, the exhibition will travel to Tokyo, San Francisco, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Istanbul, Frankfurt, New York and Zurich, in the course of the next 12 months. Access will be free to the public.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160113/321844 )

Leibovitz's new work is a continuation of a project that began over fifteen years ago when her most enduringly popular series of photographs, 'Women', was published in 1999.  Susan Sontag, with whom the original project was a collaboration, called it "a work in progress". "WOMEN: New Portraits" will evolve over the coming year as Leibovitz photographs women in each of the host cities and regions.

The new portraits unveiled in London feature women of outstanding achievement including artists, musicians, CEOs, politicians, writers and philanthropists. In addition to the new photographs, the exhibition includes work from the original series, as well as other unpublished photographs taken since.

Annie Leibovitz said: "It is extraordinary to do this work for UBS on a subject that I really care about. It is such a big undertaking and a broad subject, it is like going out and photographing the ocean."

Sergio P. Ermotti, Group Chief Executive Officer, UBS, said: "It's fantastic to be partnering with Annie on this project, which celebrates women, their strength and their role in bringing about positive change in the world. She is the best in her field and the tour builds on our long-standing support of initiatives which help shape contemporary culture".

Aligned with the focus UBS places on education, a series of free learning programmes will accompany the exhibition, presented in partnership with cultural organizations around the world. These initiatives will explore ways of seeing through photography, working with young people in local schools and communities. In London UBS are partnering with The Photographers' Gallery to present free family workshops for the duration of the exhibition run, and with Central St Martins on a workshop for their photography students. A Teachers' Guide produced in partnership with the International Center of Photography in New York and a Children's Activity Guide are available on the exhibition website. UBS will also present a talks programme, 'Women for Women' through 2016. Launching in March in San Francisco, these events will accompany the exhibition tour and will address topics of global relevance to women and women's rights.

Annie Leibovitz (b. 1949) has been making powerful images documenting popular culture since the early 1970s, when she began working as a photojournalist for Rolling Stone. She became the magazine's chief photographer in 1973, and ten years later began working for Vanity Fair and then Vogue. Her large and distinguished body of work encompasses some of the best-known portraits of our time. Exhibitions of Leibovitz's work have been shown at museums and galleries around the world, including the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the International Center of Photography in New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; the National Portrait Gallery in London; and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her work is held in museum collections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. to the National Portrait Gallery in London. She has published several collections of photographs and is the recipient of many honours. In 2006 she was made a 'Commandeur' in the 'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres' by the French government. In 2009, she received the International Center of Photography's Lifetime Achievement Award, the first Creative Excellence Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors, and the Centenary Medal of the Royal Photographic Society in London. In 2012, she was the recipient of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art Award to Distinguished Women in the Arts and the Wexner Prize. In 2013 she received the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. She has been designated a Living Legend by the Library of Congress.

A set of the new photographs will enter the UBS Art Collection - one of the world's most important corporate collections of contemporary art, comprising more than 30,000 works.

WOMEN: New Portraits  

Annie Leibovitz 

London:

Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, Wapping Wall, London E1W 3SL.

16 January - 7 February 2016

Monday - Sunday 10am - 6pm, Friday Lates until 8pm.

http://www.ubs.com/annieleibovitz 

Family Weekend Workshops (pre-booking via exhibition site)

Saturday 23 & Sunday 24 January, 09.00 - 12.00am

Saturday 30 & Sunday 31 January, 09.00 - 12.00am

Saturday 6 & Sunday 7 February, 09.00 - 12.00am

To register your place on a workshop:

https://www.ubs.com/microsites/annie-leibovitz/en/family-workshop.html

School mornings (pre-booking via exhibition site)

Wednesday 20 January 9-10am

Thursday 21 January 9-10am

Wednesday 27 January 9-10am

Thursday 28 January 9-10am

Wednesday 3 February 9-10am

Thursday 4 February 9-10am

Prepare a school visit and download the Teachers' Guide here:

https://www.ubs.com/microsites/annie-leibovitz/en/school-registration.html

Join the conversation: 

#WOMENxUBS by #AnnieLeibovitz

http://www.twitter.com @UBSglobalart @AnnieLeibovitz  

http://www.facebook.com/UBSart

https://instagram.com/ubsglobalart/

Notes to editors: 

UBS and Contemporary Art
UBS, a global financial services firm, has a long and substantial record of engagement in contemporary art, and actively enables clients and audiences to participate in the international conversation about art through its contemporary art platform.   UBS provides long-term global support to the premier international Art Basel shows in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong, for which the firm serves as global Lead Partner, as well as to the Guggenheim UBS MAP global partnership with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation. At the core of UBS's involvement in contemporary art is the UBS Art Collection, widely recognized as one of the most important corporate contemporary art collections in the world. The collection comprises more than 30,000 objects, including paintings, photographs, drawings, prints, video art and sculptures by artists representing the last 50 years. Works from the collection are installed in 837 UBS buildings in 56 countries around the world. UBS also regularly loans works to many international museums to provide greater public access to its collection. The contemporary photography collection incorporates work by Tina Barney; Candida Hofer; Pipolotti Rist; Cindy Sherman; and Sam Taylor Wood, amongst others. Recent acquisitions include work by Thomas Demand. UBS Curators and the UBS Art Board determine the location and usage of all new acquisitions to the collection.

http://www.ubs.com/art

Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative: Under the Same Sun, Museo Jumex, Mexico City, until 7 February 2016.

Art Basel in Hong Kong, Lead Partner UBS, 24 - 26 March 2016.

Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative: Under the Same Sun, South London Gallery, London, opening June 2016.

Art Basel in Basel, Lead Partner UBS, 16 - 19 June 2016. 

www.ubs.com