A Fresh Look at Seminal 1975 Photography Exhibition
Exhibition: : 17 October 2011 through 8 January 2012
Venue: Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao, Spain
Joe Deal (American, b. 1947), Untitled View (Boulder City), 1974; George Eastman House collections; © Joe Deal
Comprised of close to 150 photographs, it is a restaging of a historically
significant exhibition held in 1975 at the George Eastman House in Rochester,
New York. This reprisal brings together the work of all ten photographers
included in the original New Topographics: Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel.
Widely considered one of the seminal exhibitions in the history of
photography, New Topographics signaled the emergence of a radically new approach
to landscape and demonstrated the influence of Conceptualism and Minimalism on
photography in the 1970s. New Topographics is significant to the history of
photography primarily because it marked a dramatic shift in attitude towards
landscape as a photographic subject.
Bernd and Hilla Becher (German, 1931-2007 and b. 1934), Preparation Plant, Harry E. Colliery Coal Breaker, Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, USA, 1974; © Hilla Becher, 2009
Unlike their predecessors, such as Ansel
Adams or Minor White, the photographers featured in New Topographics did not use their work to express transcendent personal experiences of untrammeled nature. Rather, they used a more seemingly neutral approach to depict the ordinary landscapes that surround us, including aspects of the built environment that are often overlooked and considered eyesores: cheap motels, gas stations, tract
homes, trailer parks, and parking lots.
Included in the exhibition are:
Buena
Vista, Colorado (1973) by Henry Wessel; South Corner, Riccar America Company, 3184 Pullman, Costa Mesa (1974) from the series New Industrial Parks by Lewis Baltz; and Irrigation Canal, Albuquerque, New Mexico (1974) and Untitled View, (Boulder City) (1974) by Joe Deal, which all evince this radical
reconceptualization of landscape.
Henry Wessel, (American, b. 1942), Buena Vista, Colorado, 1973; George Eastman House collections; © 1973 Henry Wessel
Although they might lack conventional aesthetic hooks of expression,
narrative, and beauty, these photographs are powerful aesthetic statements that
reflect the complex and ambiguous relationship between humans and the
environment - a relationship of particular importance here in the West. As open to the work of conceptual artists such as Ed Ruscha as they were to the history of their chosen medium, the photographers in New Topographics represent a crucial bridge between the once-insular photography world and the larger field of
contemporary art. This restaging offers an opportunity to consider the
photographs both in the context of the newly central role photography was
playing in 1970s contemporary art as well as in relation to the period’s
prevailing cultural concerns, such as land use, national identity,
environmentalism, and nostalgia.
The exhibition was coorganized by Dr. Britt Salvesen, department head and curator of photography, prints and drawings at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Dr. Alison Nordström, curator of photographs at George Eastman House International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York. The San Francisco presentation is organized by Erin O’Toole, assistant curator of photography at
SFMOMA.
Following the presentation at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from July 17 to October 3, 2010, the exhibition will travel to several
international locales, including:
-
already finished:
Landesgalerie in Linz, Austria:
November 10, 2010, through January 9, 2011
- already finished:
Die Photographische Sammlung Stiftung Kultur in Cologne, Germany:
January 21 through March 27, 2011
-
now running:
The Netherlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands:
June 25 through September 11, 2011
-
Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao, Spain:
October 17, 2011 through January 8, 2012
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, New Topographics, published by Steidl, George Eastman House, and CCP. In the lead essay, Salvesen traces the
prevailing cultural and aesthetic ideas that gave rise to the show, as well as
the interconnections between the participants. Also featured is an essay by
Nordström outlining the significance of New Topographics in Eastman House’s
history and its influence on photographic history as a whole.
The new presentation and international tour of New Topographics is made possible by a generous grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Further Information:
151 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103, USA
Tel.: +1 415 357 4000
Fax: +1 415 357 4037
web: www.sfmoma.org
german version