Museums: May 2007 Archives

Michael Kimmelman (I thought he was leaving?) has reviewed the new Stephen Shore show, Biographical Landscapes, being held at ICP.

The show is wonderful. Mr. Shore, who now teaches at Bard College, reprinted the photographs digitally, with rejuvenated colors as fresh and subtle as the day the pictures were shot. The work’s laconic eloquence speaks of an era and a nation. Its wit and affection add buoyancy to scenes of threadbare America from a moment when the country was depressed by war and years of civil unrest. Its formal rigor makes an uncanny order out of images that, at first glance, look like no place or nothing.

Interesting that the prints are new, not vintage, for the reason of "rejuvenating" the original color. How can anyone know what that means? My understanding is that color degrades relatively quickly, so it's up to memory to tell what the original color looked like. And haven't we replaced our memory with the photograph? Start chasing your tail...