American Photography 1890-1965 from the Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York

American Photography 1890-1965 from the Collection

Museum of Modern Art, New York

February 20 - July 8, 1997

A major survey of seventy-five years of American photography, American Photography 1890-1965 from the Collection is on view at The Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition covers the exceptionally rich period from the turn of the century through the mid-1960s, exploring one of the most inventive chapters in the history of the medium. A richly illustrated book accompanies the exhibition and includes essays by Peter Galassi, Chief Curator, Department of Photography, who organized the exhibition, and by critic and cultural historian Luc Sante.

The exhibition includes landmark pictures by all of the central figures of modern American photography, among them Harry Callahan, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Dorothea Lange, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and Edward Weston. Generous selections of work by these and other leading photographers, together with many remarkable but unfamiliar pictures, contribute to a lively panorama of 180 works by more than 100 photographers.

The exhibition is organized in alternating groups of high-art and vernacular photographs to trace the lively evolution of the two opposing traditions in modern American photography—and the interchanges between them. "The scale of the exhibition and the range of the collection have allowed us not merely to represent the achievements of the key innovators but also to provide a coherent view of the tradition as a whole," remarks Peter Galassi. "There are many famous pictures here, but the exhibition is much more than an assembly of masterpieces."

The exhibition is accompanied by Recent Acquisitions: American Photography, a complementary display of approximately thirty photographic works by contemporary American artists. Included in this exhibition, also organized by Mr. Galassi, are works since 1980 by Robert Adams, Amy Arbus, Richard Artschwager, Ana Mendieta, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Joel Sternfeld, and Carrie Mae Weems, among others.

Publication: Published by The Museum of Modern Art, American Photography 1890-1965 from The Museum of Modern Art, New York is a 256-page volume containing 18 duotone illustrations and 5 color and full-page tritone plates of 183 works. (The book also appeared in foreign-language editions.)

Travel: American Photography 1890-1965 from The Museum of Modern Art, New York (as the exhibition was titled) opened at the Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany, on April 24, 1995, and traveled to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; the Hasselblad Center, Goteborg, Sweden; the Musee National d'Art Moderne-Centre de Creation Industrielle, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. The exhibition toured under the auspices of The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art.

Artists in American Photography 1890-1965 from the Collection

Berenice Abbott

Ansel Adams

Diane Arbus

Richard Avedon

Ralph Bartholomew

Ernest J. Bellocq

Henry Hamilton Bennett

Margaret Bourke-White

John G. Bullock

Rudy Burckhardt

Harry Callahan

Paul Caponigro

Walter Chappell

Alvin Langdon Coburn

Ted Croner

Imogen Cunningham

Charles H. Currier

Edward Curtis

Louise Dahl-Wolfe

Bruce Davidson

Roy DeCarava

Baron Adolf De Meyer

David Douglas Duncan

Harold Edgerton

Philip Elliott

Elliott Erwitt

Walker Evans

Louis Faurer

Grancel Fitz

Robert Frank

Lee Friedlander

William A. Garnett

Arnold Genthe

Laura Gilpin

L.S. Glover

John Gutmann

Charles Harbutt

Lewis W. Hine

Charles Hoff

Clifton Johnson

Frances Benjamin Johnston

Helen Levitt

Simpson Kalisher

Gertrude Kasebier

Andre Kertesz

Darius Kinsey

Irwin Klein

William Klein

Dorothea Lange

Clarence John Laughlin

Russell Lee

Leon Levinstein

Jerome Liebling

Edwin Hale Lincoln

O. Winston Link

George Piatt Lynes

Gjon Mili

Lisette Model

Tina Modotti

Arthur S. Mole and John D. Thomas

Charles Moore

Barbara Morgan

Wright Morris

Nickolas Muray

Arnold Newman

Paul Outerbridge

Gordon Parks

Irving Perm

Eliot Porter

William B. Post

William H. Rau

Robert Rauschenberg

James Bartlett Rich

Jacob Riis

George H. Seeley

Charles Sheeler

Aaron Siskind

Charles Norman Sladen

Erwin Smith

W. Eugene Smith

Frederick Sommer

Edward Steichen

Ralph Steiner

Alfred Stieglitz

Paul Strand

John Swope

John Szarkowski

Doris Ulmann

U.S. Army Signal Corps

U.S. Navy

James Van Der Zee

Adam Clark Vroman

Weegee (Arthur Fellig)

Dan Weiner

Edward Weston

Clarence H. White

Minor White

Garry Winogrand

Willard Worden

and three unidentified photographers

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART - MoMA

11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019

www.moma.org

Olympus µ [mju:]-II Compact Camera

The Olympus µ [mju:]-II Compact Camera

Olympus µ [mju:]-II Compact Camera

(c) Olympus

Olympus introduces the µ [mju:]-II compact camera. Superbly styled, ultra-compact and lightweight, the new high- performance model features a 35mm lens with a large aperture of F2.8. The Olympus µ [mju:]-II is the culmination of a relentless pursuit of compactness and easy operation in the 35mm format. Incorporating a wide range of innovations, this development concept accounts for the new model's exceptionally trim lines and weight. Even with its 35mm large-aperture F 2.8 lens, the µ[mju:]-II measures only 108 (W) x 59 (H) x 37 (D) mm and weighs just 135g. Along with the convenience of this visibly different design, it has the outstanding handling, superior image quality and sophisticated elegance that makes a photographer want to keep it close at hand. It is a combination that pushes the limits of the compact camera. This is clearly the next best-seller in the making-the model with more of everything that makes a camera satisfying to use and to own. 

Advanced design 

Even though the Olympus µ [mju:]-II is small enough to fit comfortably into one hand, its miniaturization has not impaired performance, reliability, easy operation, handling or stable balance in any way or form. 

Equally important, its extra-bright F2.8 lens opens up shooting possibilities that were beyond the capabilities of previous compact cameras. In dim light, photographers can capture the nuances of ambient conditions indoors or at dusk. They can also count on the aspherical lens for visibly different image quality. 

Ensuring accuracy at any point from Macro shots at 35cm to infinity, the AF unit has the precision of a three-point focusing system and 414-step measurement. The AF module also contributes to overall miniaturization with the space efficiency of the prism's special shape. 

The new Auto Color-Balancing flash (AC-B) eliminates the unnatural cast of pictures taken in fluorescent or other artificial light. When artificial light is detected, it fires automatically to ensure the colors are clear and lifelike. A number of state-of-the-art technologies have also been utilized to develop a soft flash function that prevents over-exposure. 

Not only are the contours stylish and sophisticated, but the body size and weight have also been reduced by innovations such as the new shaft drive mechanism which uses a single motor for film advance/rewind. Handling has been perfected by touches such as a sliding lens barrier that moves over to protect the flash. There is also a high-magnification real-image viewfinder that simplifies composition, while the all-weather casing takes the worry out of photography on a rainy day.

Main Features

Stylish, compact and lightweight 

With its flowing contours and stylish looks, the Olympus µ [mju:]-II has the sophisticated lines that people are looking for. This ultra-compact camera measures 108(W) x 59 (H) x 37 (D) mm and weighs only 135g. Just one example of this harmonization of form and function is the lens barrier that slides all the way over to cover the flash, eliminating the need to keep the camera in a case. 

High-resolution 35mm F2.8 lens 

The bright F2.8 lens extends the range of creative possibilities beyond the capabilities of any other compact camera on the market. Even in relatively dim light indoors or at dusk, the large aperture can capture the nuances of available light. The optical configuration has four elements in four groups and uses an aspherical lens to improve image quality. 

New Intelligent Variable Power Flash System-employing new Auto Color-Balancing Flash 

Several sensors are used to detect lighting information and relay it to the new Intelligent Variable Power Flash system. Ensuring an ideal color balance and lifelike results, the Auto Color-Balancing Flash system is the world's first system of its kind. The flash fires automatically when a sensor detects the wavelength of fluorescent or other artificial lighting that may result in an unnatural cast. The intelligent system's soft flash capability also prevents over-exposure, while the improved Auto mode triggers the flash automatically in dim light or backlit situations (for example,when sunlight is filtered through trees). 

AF module with special prism 

With the special shape of the exclusive prism that receives light, the AF module has been positioned to contribute to the overall miniaturization of the body. Employing a three-point focusing system with 414 steps, the AF unit delivers outstanding performance, especially from a camera with a large-aperture lens. 

Versatile flash modes 

The new Intelligent Variable-Power Flash's six modes deliver high-quality flash pictures. 

- Auto: In low light and backlit situations, the flash fires automatically to ensure that the illumination is appropriate. When fluorescent or other artificial light is detected, the new Auto Color-Balancing Flash takes over to create lifelike colors.

- Red-Eye Reducing Auto: The red-eye -a common problem with flash portraits-is reduced by a series of pre-flashes emitted before the main flash fires. (Same as Auto otherwise)

- Fill-in: Ideal for high-contrast situations, the flash always fires in this mode, eliminating the shadows caused by strong sunlight.

- Flash Off: This mode is the answer when flash photography is prohibited. It is also ideal for capturing a natural ambience.

- Night Scene: The intensity of the flash is determined by the foreground, while the length of the exposure is set according to the backdrop. Slowing the shutter speed to as long as 4 sec., this mode captures both the subject in the foreground and the night-time scenery.

- Red-Eye Reducing Night Scene: This mode reduces the red-eye effect in pictures taken in the Night Scene mode. (Except for the addition of a series of pre-flashes, it is identical to the Night Scene mode.)

High-magnification real-image viewfinder 

With a high magnification of 0.45x, the real-image viewfinder makes composition easier and more comfortable. 

All-weather, no-worry casing 

The all-weather casing protects against sand and dust as well as a sudden shower or splashing. Meeting IEC grade 4 standards for "splash-proof," the design offers extra reassurance on a rainy day, at the beach or on a ski slope. 

Other features

- Auto Macro: With this function, Macro shots can be taken from as close as 35cm to create pictures up to A4-size.

- Optional Remote control: The remote control makes it easy to trigger the shutter from as far as 5m.

- Spot Mode AE: This mode ensures accurate focusing and exposure for the main subject, regardless of the surrounding lighting conditions.

Innovations in Miniaturization 

One of the keys to the Olympus µ[mju:]-II's compactness is a layout that incorporates both the motor and new shaft drive mechanism in the lower part of the camera body. By giving the designers greater flexibility, this innovative approach also opened the way to the wedge shape and stable balance. 

All basic functions-including film advance/rewind, focusing lens barrel extension/retraction and shutter opening/closing-are handled by a single motor and plunger. Developed specially for the Olympus µ [mju:]-II, the compact new motor is situated lengthwise under the lens barrier in the space made available by the use of a shaft drive mechanism instead of the usual gears and belt drive. While this innovation contributes to the body's smaller dimensions, it also requires processing to exceptionally fine tolerances.

Six Centuries / Six Artists: Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Dürer, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, François Boucher, William Blake, Jacques Villon at the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Six Centuries / Six Artists

Martin Schongauer, Albrecht Dürer, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, François Boucher, William Blake, Jacques Villon

National Gallery of Art, Washington

February 2 - May 4, 1997

Some of the greatest treasures belonging to the National Gallery of Art, selected from its permanent collection of more than 10,000 drawings, 56,000 prints, and 2,000 rare illustrated books, are presented in Six Centuries / Six Artists. Visitors to the exhibition can see 136 works by six major artists from the fifteenth through the twentieth centuries. Each room of the exhibition is devoted entirely to the work of a single artist: the refinement of Martin Schongauer, the brilliant technique of Albrecht Dürer, the exuberance of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, the sensuality of François Boucher, the powerful mythology of William Blake, and the modernist transformations of Jacques Villon.

Because the National Gallery of Art's extensive collection of works on paper can only be exhibited on a rotating basis, Six Centuries / Six Artists offers a rare opportunity to see outstanding and unique works by master artists, including many major recent acquisitions and promised gifts from private collections.

Martin Schongauer (c. 1450-1491)

Martin Schongauer is one of the most influential artists who worked in Northern Europe during the last quarter of the fifteenth century. He earned fame during his lifetime as a painter, though today he is better known for his considerable body of precise engravings and a small group of exquisite drawings. The profound spirituality of Martin Schongauer's art, together with its courtly elegance and ornamental line, reveal the artist's work as a major flowering of the northern Gothic style. Of Martin Schongauer's rare existing drawings, which number fewer than fifty, only four belong to museums outside Europe. Two, Bust of a Monk Assisting at Communion and Young Woman Wearing a Scarf, are included in the exhibition. Though Martin Schongauer died at forty, his influence was far-reaching and lasting. His prints and drawings had a significant effect on the great German artist of the next generation, Albrecht Dürer. Even Michelangelo copied Martin Schongauer engravings.

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

Regarded as one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, Albrecht Dürer excelled as a painter, draftsman, printmaker, and art theorist. Beginning in the late Gothic tradition, Albrecht Dürer subsequently immersed himself in the varied interests of Italian Renaissance artists -- ancient art and literature, mathematical perspective, and ideal human proportions. Although Albrecht Dürer executed many paintings and altarpieces, he was most widely known for his drawings, prints, and illustrated books. With his consummate skills as a draftsman, Albrecht Dürer combines wide-ranging interests in both the natural and imagined worlds to create detailed renderings that evoke a vivid physical presence. The exhibition includes a chronological survey of some of Albrecht Dürer's finest engravings and woodcuts. Selected from the Gallery's collection of Albrecht Dürer drawings, one of the largest and most comprehensive outside Europe, Six Centuries / Six Artists also features religious and mythological drawings, studies of ideal human types and foreign costumes, as well as studies of plants that demonstrate keen powers of observation, such as Tuft of Cowslips (1526). Also shown is one of his finest early pen drawings An Oriental Ruler Seated on His Throne (c.1495), a work that commands the viewer's attention with a visionary quality transcending ordinary reality.

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (c. 1610-1664)

A romantic energy runs through Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione's art -- fluttering drapery, dense vegetation among classical ruins, herds of animals, and dark scenes illuminated by flickering torches. Influenced by lifelong travels in his native Italy, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione also learned from Flemish artists Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) and Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione's work focuses on religious and mythological subjects filled with movement, such as Noah Leading the Animals into the Ark (late 1640s), journeys of patriarchs and ancient shepherds, and images of life and death such as Christ's nativity, burial scenes, and The Resurrection of Lazarus (1647-1651). In his drawings, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione developed a distinctive style using brush and oils that paralleled Flemish artists' oil sketches on wood. In printmaking, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione studied Rembrandt's etchings. Using creative variations of linear and etching techniques, Castiglione explored sensitive variations of delicate tones and eventually invented the monotype. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione's works on paper were avidly collected in the eighteenth century, and his bravura style, mysterious themes, exotic details, and scintillating technique were enormously influential on later artists, especially the Venetians, from Giovanni Battista Tiepolo to Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and the French, from François Boucher to Jean-Honoré Fragonard.

Francois Boucher (1703-1770)

As the favored artist of the king's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, and later First Painter to King Louis XV, Boucher wielded enormous influence in French artistic circles of the mid-eighteenth century. François Boucher was a prolific and talented draftsman; his drawings often show his sensuous figures and lighthearted subjects to better advantage than his paintings. He used pen and wash to brilliant effect, but generally preferred chalks, often red or black, and although many of his drawings were made in preparation for works in other media -- such as paintings, tapestries, Sèvres porcelain, and engraved book illustrations -- a large number were designed to feed a burgeoning market for drawings as finished and complete works of art in themselves. Early in his career, Boucher made a number of lively black-and-white etchings. Though he never truly became a committed printmaker, he inspired other artists in that arena, most notably Louis Marin Bonnet and Gilles Demarteau. François Boucher's drawings on view include Tête-à-tête (1764) and perhaps his finest male nude, Apollo (c. 1753). Featured among the prints is Head of Flora (1769), the largest and most elaborate of Bonnet's color prints after François Boucher.

William Blake (1757-1827)

A poet as well as a visual artist, William Blake was one of the most imaginative and influential of British painter-printmakers. William Blake's narrative images are inextricably tied to his own highly complex visionary writings. Others were inspired by biblical subjects, and the classic texts of Dante, John Milton, and William Shakespeare. Admiration for Michelangelo's muscular figures can be seen in William Blake's delicate drawings in graphite and pen and ink, as well as in his highly worked and sumptuous watercolors. William Blake's inventiveness as a printmaker is revealed in his extraordinary technical range, from line engravings on metal and wood to unique impressions made using highly personal methods of color application. Highlights of the collection on view in Six Centuries / Six Artists are selections from William Blake's two late engraving cycles Illustrations of the Book of Job and Illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy, including numerous working proofs as well as one of his original copper printing plates. Selections of William Blake's drawings include some of his most tender works, like Job and His Family Restored to Prosperity, as well as one of his most powerful and well-known apocalyptic watercolors, The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun.

Jacques Villon (1875-1963)

"Jacques Villon" is the professional name assumed by Gaston Duchamp, who was the brother of sculptor Raymond Duchamp-Villon and of the multitalented avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp. Villon learned etching as a boy from his grandfather, and he exploited the medium contrary to the contemporary dominance of lithography in France. In his series of color aquatints from 1899 to 1906, Jacques Villon made the finest etchings of that period; his early images were occasionally of workmen or street scenes, but most often of elegant Parisian women, both in society and in the cabarets. The selection includes numerous artist's proofs showing Jacques Villon's creative variations of intense color as well as delicate shades. In 1906-1907, Jacques Villon turned from fields of color to black and white, searching for purity of line and more strictly geometric forms. He used intimate subjects drawn from his family life -- including his cousin Renee and his sister Yvonne - to create many of his major works. These images culminated in Jacques Villon's large drypoint prints of 1913, which are among the most powerful cubist prints of the twentieth century. Two examples featured in the exhibition are Yvonne D. in Profile and Yvonne D. from the Front, both in rare early proofs.

The exhibition is organized by the curators of prints and drawings led by Andrew Robison, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator, National Gallery of Art.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

Fourth Street at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20565

www.nga.gov

Peter Cain at Matthew Marks Gallery, NYC

Peter Cain: New Paintings ans Drawings
Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
February 1 - March 15, 1997

Matthew Marks presents Peter Cain: New Paintings and Drawings. This exhibition includes the artist's final completed works. Peter Cain died suddenly and tragically of a cerebral hemorrhage, age 37, on Sunday, January 5th, 1997.

The exhibition, which open as originally scheduled, consists of new paintings and drawings, made by the artist over the past two years. In a radical departure from his earlier work in which cars were the exclusive subject matter, Cain spent the last two years working with the traditional themes of landscape and portraiture.

This exhibition includes three large-scale paintings of a man's head and six smaller canvases of Los Angeles industrial landscapes. A range of related graphite drawings are also be included.

Peter Cain was included in both the 1993 and 1995 Biennial Exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. His work has been exhibited in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Milan in the past year.

Matthew Marks Gallery
523 W 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Louise Lawler at Metro Pictures, New York - Paint, Wall, Pictures: Something Always Follows Something Else She Wasn't Always a Statue

Louise Lawler

Paint, Wall, Pictures: Something Always Follows Something Else She Wasn't Always a Statue

Metro Pictures, New York

February 1 – March 15, 1997

Metro Pictures presents an exhibition by Louise Lawler. This is the gallery's inaugural exhibition at it's new 9,000 square foot location at 519 West 24th Street in Chelsea. The new location features two main exhibition rooms on the street level as well as two smaller gallery spaces, one on the main level and another on the second floor. This provides Metro Pictures with the opportunity to present smaller, informal exhibitions in addition to its regular program.

The centerpiece of Louise Lawler's show is a series of large-scale (roughly 48 x 60 inches) photographs taken at the gallery's new premises before and during renovation. The lushly abstract new images are reminiscent of Color Field paintings. These, as well as the other works exhibited, continue the artist's involvement with artworks, their presentation and treatment. Louise Lawler's photographs of artworks in museums, galleries, private homes, auction houses and storage areas track the art object through various situations and comment on the relationship between the object and the worlds of commerce and consumption, as well as the museums and collectors who own and present it. As always, Louise Lawler exhibits humor and an appreciative eye for the art depicted. 

The exhibition also includes Fixed Intervals, a collaboration with artist Allan McCollum which consist of series of brass plated steel "ding bats" which are placed (either on the wall or a pedestal) as a surrogate to mark the absence of a work of art. 

Louise Lawler is also show a work from 1995 consisting of 80 drinking glasses placed on shelves on the wall. Each glass is etched with the word "Word."

Louise Lawler has had one-person museum exhibitions at the Wadsworth Antheneum, Hartford (1984); The Museum of Modern Art, New York ("Projects," 1987); The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1990); Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany (1993); Centre d'Art Contemporain, Geneva (1994); Munich Kunstverein, Munich (1995). Louise Lawler collaborated with Douglas Crimp on the book On the Museum's Ruins published by MIT Press in 1993. The artist is based in New York City and has exhibited at Metro Pictures since 1982.

On The Museum's Ruins

Douglas Crimp with photographs by Louise Lawler

MIT Press, September 1993

368 pp., 7 in x 9.5 in

© The MIT Press

METRO PICTURES GALLERY

519 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011

www.metropictures.com

Upadated 02.12.2021