Earth Now exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art

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Publication: Journal Santa Fe Section; Date: Apr 29, 2011; Section: Gallery Guide; Page: S8 EARTH IN THE BALANCE Photo exhibition focuses on environment Art Issues MALIN WILSONPOWELL For the Journal “Earth Now: American Photographers and the Environment” is a jam-packed exhibition full of contemporary work that is being exhibited for the first time. The handsome book published in conjunction with the show greatly both enhances the pleasure of seeing it and gives it legs, i.e., the ability to have a more far-reaching, long-term impact. Installed in the New Mexico Museum of Art’s contemporary wing, the exhibition has two components — the first group of mostly modest-sized prints by 10 photographers is a concise historical framework or prelude to four groupings of larger-scale photographic works primarily done since 2000 by 23 photographers. The exhibition opens with small black-and-white images printed by Ansel Adams and dye transfer prints in the saturated color mastered by Eliot Porter. Both of these major artists lent their work to environmental causes, especially via publications by the Sierra Club. In the “Earth Now” book, Ware rightfully stresses that both Adams and Porter, whose photographs have become known worldwide in reproduction — through books, calendars and notecards — were first and foremost fine art photographers. In other words, they were artists first, and their lifelong environmental activism arose from spending so much time in wilderness areas. While Adams and Porter’s smallformat prints are somewhat overwhelmed on the walls in the company of so many big, brash, glossy contemporary works, in the “Earth Now” book — where images are sized to fit the page — the stunning nuances of Adams’ and Porter’s view camera images continue to triumph. At this early point in the exhibition, a short detour is recommended to the museum’s upstairs gallery where “Cloudscapes: Photographs from the Collection” grace the walls. There are some magnificent additional prints by Adams and Porter installed alongside similarly scaled work by many other 20th-century photographers inspired by our great landscapes and skyscapes. Just as curator Katherine Ware gravitated to assembling a landscape exhibition after moving from the East coast to New Mexico in 2008, most of the “Cloudscapes” images are by artists who used their cameras in response to the grandeur of “the land around us here” which “is, aside from its people, the state’s greatest resource.” The beautifully designed publication subtly reinforces the division Ware draws between the work of the forerun- ners and the current work she has selected. The book uses a serif typeface for her formal scholarly essay on the historical photographers and a more contemporary sans serif typeface for her personal assessment of work by the contemporary artists she champions and with whom she feels in tune. Ware develops her basic premise with broad strokes along the lines of accepted academic lineages. After the generation of the great nature photographers including Adams and Porter, who reveled in the beauty of America’s untrammeled regions, a reactionary movement of younger photographers followed. This generation of artists emphasized the disparity between grand, protected parklands and the condition of the everyday EARTH IN THE BALANCE http://epaper.abqjournal.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=Ol... 1 of 6 5/3/11 5:44 PM

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Review of Earth Now exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art

Transcript of Earth Now exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art

Page 1: Earth Now  exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art

Publication: Journal Santa Fe Section; Date: Apr 29, 2011; Section: Gallery Guide; Page: S8

EARTH IN THE BALANCE Photo exhibition focuses on environment Art Issues

MALIN WILSONPOWELL

For the Journal

“Earth Now: American Photographers and the Environment” is a jam-packed exhibition full of contemporarywork that is being exhibited for the first time. The handsome book published in conjunction with the showgreatly both enhances the pleasure of seeing it and gives it legs, i.e., the ability to have a more far-reaching,long-term impact.

Installed in the New Mexico Museum of Art’s contemporary wing, the exhibition has two components — thefirst group of mostly modest-sized prints by 10 photographers is a concise historical framework or prelude tofour groupings of larger-scale photographic works primarily done since 2000 by 23 photographers.

The exhibition opens with small black-and-white images printed by Ansel Adams and dye transfer prints inthe saturated color mastered by Eliot Porter. Both of these major artists lent their work to environmentalcauses, especially via publications by the Sierra Club. In the “Earth Now” book, Ware rightfully stresses thatboth Adams and Porter, whose photographs have become known worldwide in reproduction — through books,calendars and notecards — were first and foremost fine art photographers. In other words, they were artistsfirst, and their lifelong environmental activism arose from spending so much time in wilderness areas.

While Adams and Porter’s smallformat prints are somewhat overwhelmed on the walls in the company of somany big, brash, glossy contemporary works, in the “Earth Now” book — where images are sized to fit thepage — the stunning nuances of Adams’ and Porter’s view camera images continue to triumph.

At this early point in the exhibition, a short detour is recommended to the museum’s upstairs gallery where“Cloudscapes: Photographs from the Collection” grace the walls. There are some magnificent additional printsby Adams and Porter installed alongside similarly scaled work by many other 20th-century photographersinspired by our great landscapes and skyscapes.

Just as curator Katherine Ware gravitated to assembling a landscape exhibition after moving from the Eastcoast to New Mexico in 2008, most of the “Cloudscapes” images are by artists who used their cameras inresponse to the grandeur of “the land around us here” which “is, aside from its people, the state’s greatestresource.”

The beautifully designed publication subtly reinforces the division Ware draws between the work of theforerun- ners and the current work she has selected. The book uses a serif typeface for her formal scholarlyessay on the historical photographers and a more contemporary sans serif typeface for her personalassessment of work by the contemporary artists she champions and with whom she feels in tune.

Ware develops her basic premise with broad strokes along the lines of accepted academic lineages. After thegeneration of the great nature photographers including Adams and Porter, who reveled in the beauty ofAmerica’s untrammeled regions, a reactionary movement of younger photographers followed. This generationof artists emphasized the disparity between grand, protected parklands and the condition of the everyday

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landscape. Their photographs documented and critiqued and implicated humans in the construction,destruction and degradation of the land. In addition to the well-known and stunning work by Richard Misrachof bombing ranges in Nevada — often criticized for its seductive beauty and making “poetry out of theholocaust” — are particularly powerful images by Robert Glenn Ketchum and Terry Evans of industrial blight.

Ware highlights the droll humor in Bill Owens’ delightful work, featuring his photograph of portable toilets fortourists lined up on the edge of a gravel parking area in front of the grandeur of Monument Valley. Itscombination of euphemistically called “comfort stations” and an officially designated “view spot” gives a newmeaning to the “call of nature,” and it is used on the book’s back cover.

Legacies from earlier artists are often clear in the new work by a younger generation making up the bulk ofthe exhibition. Especially close in tone to Owens’ humor are Brad Moore’s pigment prints of vegetationperfunctorily trimmed to fit parking lot hardscapes, although they are twice the size of Owens’ pieces. Not solight-hearted are Beth Lilly’s grotesquely misshapen urban trees carelessly amputated to keep them awayfrom power lines.

The contemporary photographers are characterized as citizens of a media-saturated world that “experiencethe outdoors primarily through windows” whose photographs are not overt calls to action like previousenvironmental photographers. Instead, they are artists “accepting the presence of both nature and cultureand seeking a way forward.”

When it comes to Ware’s selections of current work, she has included more women’s than men’s photography,and she definitely has a preference for the understated. To really connect the dots, it is necessary to read hergracefully written text in the tandem publication. Herein she weaves together a polyphony of strategies thattouch upon such present day issues as light pollution, seed preservation, beekeeping on city rooftops, andback-to-the land organic agriculture.

Of special note is Sonja Thomsen’s exquisite grid of the viscous bubbling surface of dark crude oil in 12chromogenic prints titled “Petroleum” (2008) and arranged in a three-byfour grid. Also intended to seduce areChristina Seely’s wide-angle exposures of cities at night, and Christine Chin’s whimsical proposal for agenerator powered by moths. Laurel Schultz’s recent “Arboreality” series — taken while perching in a tree —are a delightful reorientation from the bird’s-eye and worm’s-eye viewpoints of earlier photographers to atree’s-eye view. They bring to mind pioneer naturalist Aldo Leopold’s admonishment to “Think Like aMountain.”

Peppered among the overall sensibility of photographs that are subtle and indirect, there are a few worksdone by notably passionate advocates for the environment. Not so subtle myself, my preference is with theovert and direct, including Victor Masayesva Jr.’s extraordinary “Radioactive Barrel,” 1998; Greg Mac Gregor’s“Fuel Tanks” and “Tank Treads,” both 2006; and Carlan Tapp’s ongoing series documenting the poisoning ofNavajo people and their lands from strip mining coal.

If you go

WHAT: “Earth Now: American Photographers and the Environment;” and the book “Earth Now” published tocoincide with exhibition (Museum of New Mexico Press, 91 duotone and full color images, 188 pages,hardcover, $39.95)

WHERE: New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 W. Palace Ave.

WHEN: Through Oct. 9. Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Friday, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

COST: By museum admission. Free on Friday evening to all. Free on Sundays to New Mexicans.

CONTACT: 505 476-5072 or NMArtMuseum. org

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COURTESY BILL OWENS

“Monument Valley, Utah/Arizona, 2004” is a pigment print by Bill Owens.

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COURTESY ANDREW SMITH GALLERY

“Radioactive Barrel” is a 1998 Ilfocolor print by Victor Masayesva Jr.

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COURTESY THE AMON CARTER MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, FORT WORTH, TEXAS

“Green Reflections in Stream, Moqui Creek, Glen Canyon, Utah, September 2, 1962” is a dye transfer print byEliot Porter.

COURTESY J. BRAD MOORE

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“Kermore Lane, Stanton, California” is a 2007 pigment print by Brad Moore.

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