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An American Century of Photography: From Dry-Plate to Digital, Selections from The Hallmark Photographic Collection
January 23 through March 28, 1999
An American Century of Photography: From Dry-Plate to Digital, Selections from The Hallmark Photographic Collection presents an overview of American photography from the mid-1880s to the present. This survey, which begins its national tour at The Phillips Collection, continues a recently established initiative to show American photography in special exhibitions at the museum.
Past exhibitions at The Phillips Collection have focused on important modernist photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, and Consuelo Kanaga. An American Century of Photography provides an opportunity to place these major artists within the larger context of modernist photography. It offers a unique occasion to evaluate the technical, social, and artistic developments reflected in American photography over the past century. In addition, the exhibition highlights the relationships between modem art and photography.
An
American Century of Photography was conceived and
organized by Keith F. Davis, Fine Art Programs Director, Hallmark Cards,
Inc., Kansas City, Missouri. Davis sees An American Century as a
logical expression of his 30-year interest in photography. He says, "The
goals of this exhibition and book are twofold: to celebrate the strengths
of a single collection, and to use this holding to remind us of the depth
and range of modern photography as a whole. The exhibition attempts to speak
to a very broad spectrum of viewers. Some of the works in the 
show will be recognized
by everyone; others will be entirely new, even to experts. I hope this combination
of the familiar and the unexpected helps to expand and enrich our understanding
of the topic."
Drawn
entirely from The Hallmark Photographic Collection--one of the most renowned
holdings of its kind in the world with some 4,000 works--this exhibition
provides a broad view of the art and history of American photography of
the late-19th and 20th centuries. It includes many rare vintage prints and
a deliberate mixture of both famous and little-known works. By juxtaposing
icons of American photography such as Alfred Stieglitz's The Steerage
(1907) or Edward Weston's Pepper No. 30 (1930) with less-familiar
works by other artists, the exhibition encourages a deeper and richer understanding
of photography's history. In addition, the exhibition encompasses prints
by Europeans such as Andre Kertesz and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy who eventually
came to the United States, where they made a significant contribution to
American photography. Thus, while the selection of works focuses on American
themes and subjects, it also suggests an international cross-pollination
of ideas and influences.
An American. Century of Photography is arranged chronologically in four sections, each spanning a period of approximately a quarter century. Within each section, thematic groupings of works underscore stylistic similarities or contrasts, as well as specific friendships or influences.
The
first section of the show, "A Reluctant Modernism: 1890-1915,"
includes high-speed work from the late 
1880s by Eadweard Muybridge and Francis Blake; important
artistic images of the 1890s by William A. Fraser and F. Holland Day; large-format
commercial work by Charles D. Arnold and William H. Rau; turn - of - the
- century Pictorialist images by Clarence H. White, Gertrude Kasebier, and
others of the Stieglitz circle; early modernist works of the 1910s by Karl
Struss and Alvin Langdon Coburn; documentary images by photographers as
varied as Lewis Hine and Edward S. Curtis; and semi-abstract studies of
natural forms by photographers such as Wilson A. Bentley and Bertha E. Jaques.
"Abstraction
and Realism: 1915-1940," the second section of the exhibition, begins
with an overview of the work of the Clarence White School, featuring such
notable figures as Paul Outerbridge, Ralph Steiner, and Laura 
Gilpin. This is
followed by important prints by the leading figures of the photographic
avant-garde of the late 1910s and early 1920s: Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand,
Alvin Langdon Coburn, and Edward Steichen. Edward Weston's influence and
artistic milieu is then suggested through the work of friends and "Group
f/64" associates such as Johan Hagemeyer, Tina Modotti, Ansel Adams,
and Imogen Cunningham. The "New Vision" work of the 1920s European
avant-garde
is surveyed in a selection of important images by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Man
Ray, Andre Kertesz, Florence Henri, and others. This is followed by prints
devoted to the subjects of technology and the machine; early photojournalism;
American works inspired by the European "New Vision" aesthetic;
late Pictorialist photographs; and, finally, a group of Depression-era Farm
Securities Administration images by Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, and
Ben Shahn.
The third section of the exhibition, "From Public
to Private Concerns: 1940-1965," begins with photographs of 
World War II. This
is followed by a series of urban pictures--by Weegee, Helen Levitt, Homer
Page,
Gordon Parks, Roy DeCarava, Robert Frank, and others--that convey the mixed
artistic mood of the postwar period, one of both restless vitality and moody
introspection. The most subjective artistic photography of the period is
seen in the work of Frederick Sommer, Minor White, Harry Callahan, and Aaron
Siskind, while the art of applied photography is exemplified in fashion
and portrait images by Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Arnold Newman, and others.
This section concludes with work of the early 1960s by photographers as
varied in style and approach as Diane Arbus, Carry Winogrand, Lee Friedlander,
Jerry Uelsmann, and Duane Michals .
The final section of the exhibition, "The Image Transformed:
1965-Present," shows the influence of 
contemporary artistic concerns. Responses to the mood
of discord during the period are seen in 
works by artists as varied as Arthur Tress and William
Eggleston. The mutual influence of photography and painting is seen in images
by Andy Warhol and Chuck Close. The postmodern concerns of the 1980s are
demonstrated in the work of Barbara Kruger, while the themes of identity
and the body are explored in works by Cindy Sherman and Robert Mapplethorpe.
The exhibition ends with groups of pictures devoted to two themes of continuing
artistic importance--landscape and the domestic realm--with representative
works by contemporary artists such as Robert Adams, Emmet Gowin, Lynn Davis,
Sally Mann, Nicholas Nixon, and Abelardo Morell.
From top to bottom: All photographs are courtesy of the Hallmark Photography Collection, Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, Misxsouri. Francis Blake (1850-1913) Pigeons in Flight, ca. 1886-90; gelatin silver print; Charles Sheeler (1883-1965), Ford Plant-Criss Crossed Conveyors, 1927, vintage gelatin silver print; Sandy Skoglund (b.1946), Fox Games, 1989, Cibachrome print, © Sandy Skoglund; Sally Mann (b. 1951) Gorjus, 1989, gelatin silver print, © Sally Mann; Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), Georgia O'Keeffe, A Portrait, 1933, vintage gelatin silver print; Alvin Langdon Coburn (1882-1966), The House of a Thousand Windows, 1912, platinum print; Clarence H. White )1871-1925), The Orchard, 1902, platinum print; Ralph Steiner (1899-1986), untitled (alarm clocks and coffee), ca. 1928, gelatin silver print; Tina Modotti (1896-1942), Campesinos, 1926, gelatin silver print; Arthur Rothstein (1915-1985), Farmer and Sons Walking in Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1933, vintage gelatin silver print; Weegee [Arthur Fellig] (1899-1968), The Critic, 1943, gelatin silver print, © 1994 International Center of Photography, New York, Bequest of Wilma Wilcox; Gordon Parks (b.1912) Emerging Man, 1952, gelatin silver print, © Grodon Parks; Ralph Gibson (b.1939), Face, 1981, vintage gelatin silver print, © Ralph Gibson; William Christenberry (b.1936), Window near Stewart, Alabama, 1988, dye coupler print, © William Christenberry
For further biographical information on selected artists cited above please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
rev. 9/20/10
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