Museums: January 2006 Archives

Tyler Green is posting a series on architectural photographer Julius Schulman over the course of the coming days. The first bit is up on Modern Art Notes now. The Getty's Schulman retrospective closes on Sunday.

I'm not sure exactly what works this refers to or where the installation is hung (if it's the small display on the first floor , then it's probably not worth a special trip), but the Met is having a gallery talk on its modern photography in the permanent collection. As usual, it's aimed at retired folks and the independently wealthy, scheduled at 11am on Wednesday.

Hot on the heels of last week's Times article about gifting private collections comes the news that Hallmark's corporate photography collection numbering some 6500 prints by 900 American photographers has landed at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, the location of Hallmark's headquarters office. The acquisition is a combination gift & purchase from Hallmark. I'm still trying to figure out why it wasn't a full-on gift and required some portion to be purchased, but the Byzantine strictures of corporate giving are frequently beyond fathom. The collection will be featured in new galleries specifically designed and designated to the exhibition of photography scheduled to be opened in 2007. Hallmark's collection is nearly as large as the Gilman Paper Collection that the Met acquired last May, though Hallmark's collection covers the full history of photography while the Gilman collection focuses mainly on the first century.

The collection was published in book form in 1999.

Minnesota art site mnartists.org has a review of the Minnesota Center for Photography jurried show exhibition. There are a lot of great photographers working in the mid-west; Alec Soth has gained the greatest prominence and his influence is felt here as well.

That several of the artists have an aesthetic similar to Soth’s is both a testament to Soth’s vision, as well as an intimation of the Upper Midwestern psyche: if one had to categorize the region’s photographs, it would be with these isolated, spare images – with an aesthetic of sorrow, pride, and the lower-middle class – an aesthetic that’s just beginning to be explored.

Through Jan 15th (Sunday!) at Minnesota Center for Photography
165 13th Avenue NE
Minneapolis, MN
(612) 824-5500