An Exhibition Analysis of the Theme of “Normality” in the Color Photo Innovations of “William Eggleston at MoMA 1976”
This exhibition analysis will define the theme of “normalcy” that arises in the innovative use of color photography presented in “William Eggleston at MoMA 1976.” Eggleston (1976) defines the important use of color photography to challenge the black and white dominance of the medium in the 1970s. MoMA exhibited Eggleston’s work in 1976 to show the importance of minimalism and normalcy that is part of the everyday life of Southerners in these photos. Eggleston’s pictures of people in Memphis, Tennessee bring forth a sense of privacy and normal everyday poses in these photos, which suggests a balance between formlessness and
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aesthetic placement of the subject. The exhibition curator, John Szarkowski, presented these images in a traditional wall-mounted presentation, which allowed the visitor to view the pictures without superfluous interventions. In essence, William Eggleston at MoMA 1976 defines advancement in the color photography medium and the presentation of “normality” in the everyday life of people in the southern American culture. The color photo of William Eggleston at MoMA 1976” were curated by John Szarkowski defines the continual advancement of the medium of photography in the 1970s. Szarkowski was a major figure in the New York art scene that exhibited photography, which was a rare occurrence in the 1960s and into the 1970s. Szarkowski received his art degree at University of Wisconsin–Madison and he became the successor to Edward Steichen at MoMA in 1962. Szarkowski’s contributions to the photographic medium define the important role that he played in introducing William Eggleston to the New York art scene (Bolton 46). This exhibit took place at the MoMA at gallery in New York City in 1976. Szarkowski was the primary curator for this event. Eggleston’s photos provided a new way to balance the formlessness and overly pretty aspects of photography through the theme of “normalcy’ in his subjects. The press in New York City received “William Eggleston at MoMA 1976” with favorable reviews due to the new perspective of color photography as a high level aesthetic presentation. The traditional use of black and white film as an art form had dominated the art world since the 1960s, which had created some barriers to effectiveness of color photography as a commercial medium for advertisements or promotional value: “By 1976 color was everywhere—on every magazine cover, in movie houses, and on televisions” (Lewis para.5). More the MoMA show put forth a press release on Eggleston’s photography as a means in which to communicate a new style of color photography in this type of high-art culture. Szarkowski’s (1976) press release defines the imbalance of color photo themes and composition the mid-1970s, which caused a positive shift in the way these photos were interpreted at the exhibition: Unlike most of their predecessors, whose color has been either formless or too pretty, a new generation of young photographers has begun to use color in a confident spirit of freedom and naturalness (MoMA para.2). These factors define the cultural interpretation of Eggleston’s photos in 1976, which set a new trend through the New York media that color photography was not longer defined as being a “commercial” or amateur style of photography in this medium. MoMA had a unique success in Eggleston’s exhibit, which redefined the color photography medium as a form of high art in the mid-1970s. The show was installed with a traditional placement of photographs mounted on walls, yet Szarkowski presented a well-written catalogue of each of the photos as a guide for visitors that might not be familiar with color photography as an artistic form.
The white walls of the museum served to contrast the dark, almost chiaroscuro lighting of Eggelston's work within a color perspective. This approach allowed the viewer to become aware of a new type of photography, which allowed very little superfluous additions to the presentation of the photos. More so, the white walls allowed the everyday scenes that Eggleston captured as his subjects to be seen for what they were: non-institutionalized compositions and subject presentation as a form of high art (Elligot 164). This individual show defined the importance of Eggleston’s work as a pioneering new art form, which included a new technological advances and approaches to color photography as an art form. Szarkowski defined this type of art as being a promising ne way to remove color photography as a type of tacky, commercial medium that was used in the mass media. Eggleston’s art was presented in the show as being a high art version of “normalcy’ that took away the gaudy use of color photography of magazines, billboards, and other methods of using color in …show more content…
photography. The historical effect of Eggleston’s work in “William Eggleston at MoMA 1976” was significant because it redefined the use of color photography as a high art form in New York galleries. The use of black and white film as the dominant medium of photography was the common style of the 1960s and 1970s, yet Eggleston had singlehandedly made color photography a sensation in the New York art scene. Eggleston’s use of chiaroscuro lighting, vivid coloration, and the presentation of common people in his compositions defined this revolutionary form of art through color photography: Eggleston did for color photography what the Dutch masters of the genre did for painting in the 16th and 17th centuries. He took it out of the hands of wealthy institutions” (Hiott 162). Eggleston had not only broke the “color barrier” to the New York at scene, but he had created a way for high art institutions to celebrate the commonality and normalcy of everyday life in rural or suburban areas of the country.
In the mid-1970s, color photography has been viewed as something for commercial purposes, yet Eggleston and Szarkowski had singlehandedly changed this historical view. Therefore, the dominance of black and white photography had been challenged in New York galleries, especially with the unique and powerfully controlled aesthetic that Eggleston brought to the color medium. Eggleston became a powerful pioneer due to this exhibition, which reveals the multi-varied aspects of the color medium in photography that made him a historical figure in this art
form. In conclusion, an exhibition analysis of “William Eggleston at MoMA 1976” has been defined in a curatorial and historical evaluation of Eggleston’s pioneering advances in the color photography medium. Eggleston brought forth a powerful new way to represent the “normalcy” of everyday people in the south, which utilized vivid coloration, chiaroscuro methods, and composition to present common events in the lives of people in color photography. More so, Szarkowski’s curatorial role in the exhibition exposed these themes in color photography, which created a new sensation in the art photography of the New York at scene. Traditionally, the use of black and white photography was the dominant form of expression in New York galleries, yet Eggleston’s exhibition challenged these assumptions with beautifully composed color images depicting the normalcy of everyday life. These aspects of the Eggleston exhibition define the pioneering compositional and aesthetic qualities of “normalcy’ that redefined the high-art world of photography I the mid-1970s. Eggleston is a pioneer in the color photographic medium, which opened the door for color in photography at the MoMA during this historical era.
For my museum selection I decided to attend Texas State University’s Wittliff Collection. When I arrived, there was no one else there besides me and the librarian. To be honest, I probably would have never gone to an art museum if my teacher didn’t require me to. This was my first time attending the Wittliff Collection, thus I asked the librarian, “Is there any other artwork besides Southwestern and Mexican photography?” She answered, “No, the Wittliff is known only for Southwestern and Mexican photography.” I smiled with a sense of embarrassment and continued to view the different photos. As I walked through Wittliff, I became overwhelmed with all of the different types of photography. There were so many amazing pieces that it became difficult to select which one to write about. However, I finally managed to choose three unique photography pieces by Alinka Echeverria, Geoff Winningham, and Keith Carter.
Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
Richards focus is that of the ignored; a people that otherwise have been forgotten. It’s his compassion to his subjects and his commitment to them that surpasses the act of making a pretty picture. Spending days with his subjects in the slums of Harlem or the hardly developed mountains of West Virginia he immerses himself into the frequently bitter life of his next award-winning photo. Often including word for word text of testimonials recorded by junkies and destitute farmers, Richards is able to provide an unbiased portrayal. All he has done is to select and make us look at the faces of the ignored, opinions and reactions are left to be made by the viewer.
Peanut butter and jelly, a common combination of two separate entities, most people have heard of this duo, many enjoy it, but only one manufacturer packaged them together in a handy snack. Much like the tasty treat that is Goobers is the tasty duo of Adam Fuss and Roland Barthes. Two separate men, Adam Fuss and Roland Barthes put together in one reading, complementing and accentuating each other. Fuss and Barthes, they share an interest in photography, they share an interest in the foundation and principles of photography, more over they share an interest in photography that is deeply personal. Fuss takes the camera out of photography. Barthes takes photography out of art. Both men want to get to the essence of what a photograph is, one by thinking and writing about it and one by doing it. In this paper I will show how Adam Fuss’ work matches up with and demonstrates the ideas of Barthes’ in Camera Lucida. I will look at one body of work at a time and show which parts of Barthes’ ideas are present in the work, in its creation and its theory. I will start with his first professional body of work, move through to his most recent work and then look back to some of his childhood pictures. Whether Barthes' ideas actually influenced Fuss’ work I am not sure of, I have not found any text or interview that leads me to believe that it is, however I would not be surprised if it has.
"History of Art: History of Photography." History of Art: History of Photography. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2014. .
In the chapter, “The Mirror with a Memory”, the authors, James Davidson and Mark Lytle, describe numerous things that evolved after the civil war, including the life of Jacob Riis, the immigration of new peoples in America, and the evolution of photography. The authors’ purpose in this chapter is to connect the numerous impacts photography had on the past as well as its bringing in today’s age.
Photographers had begum to document and publicize the issues of the race problem and the struggle for equal rights in the United States in the early 1900s. Early photographs documented protests against lynching, Jim Crow laws, and captured protest...
Many might have been working on Good Friday, but many others were enjoying The Frist Museum of Visual Arts. A museum visitor visited this exhibit on April 14, 2017 early in the morning. The time that was spent at the art museum was approximately two hours and a half. The first impression that one received was that this place was a place of peace and also a place to expand the viewer’s imagination to understand what artists were expressing to the viewers. The viewer was very interested in all the art that was seen ,but there is so much one can absorb. The lighting in the museum was very low and some of the lighting was by direction LED lights. The artwork was spaciously
Mark Rothko is recognized as one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century and during his lifetime was touted as a leading figure in postwar American painting. He is one of the outstanding figures of Abstract Expressionism and one of the creators of Color Field Painting. As a result of his contribution of great talent and the ability to deliver exceptional works on canvas one of his final projects, the Rothko Chapel offered to him by Houston philanthropists John and Dominique de Menil, would ultimately anchor his name in the art world and in history. Without any one of the three, the man, the work on canvas, or the dream, the Rothko Chapel would never have been able to exist for the conceptualization of the artist, the creations on canvas and the architectural dynamics are what make the Rothko Chapel a product of brilliance.
It appears to me that pictures have been over-valued; held up by a blind admiration as ideal things, and almost as standards by which nature is to be judged rather than the reverse; and this false estimate has been sanctioned by the extravagant epithets that have been applied to painters, and "the divine," "the inspired," and so forth. Yet in reality, what are the most sublime productions of the pencil but selections of some of the forms of nature, and copies of a few of her evanescent effects, and this is the result, not of inspiration, but of long and patient study, under the instruction of much good sense…
Robertson, Jean, and Craig McDaniel. Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art after 1980. New York:, Oxford UP, 2013.
In the book “Ways of Seeing,” John Berger explains several essential aspects of art through influence of the Marxism and art history that relates to social history and the sense of sight. Berger examines the dominance of ideologies in the history of traditional art and reflects on the history, class, and ideology as a field of cultural discourse, cultural consumption and cultural practice. Berger argues, “Realism is a powerful link to ownership and money through the dominance of power.”(p.90)[1] The aesthetics of art and present historical methodology lack focus in comparison to the pictorial essay. In chapter six of the book, the pictorial imagery demonstrates a variety of art forms connoting its realism and diversity of the power of connecting to wealth in contradiction to the deprived in the western culture. The images used in this chapter relate to one another and state in the analogy the connection of realism that is depicted in social statues, landscapes, and portraiture, also present in the state of medium that was used to create this work of art.
This book is a note written by Roland Barthes to record the dialectical way he thought about the eidos(form, essence, type, species) of Photographs. Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, linguist in his lifetime, but surprisingly he was not a photographer. As Barthes had a belief that art works consists with signs and structures, he had investigated semiotics and structuralism. However, through Camera Lucida, he realized the limitation of structuralism and the impression to analyze Photography with only semiotics and structuralism. Barthes concludes with talking about unclassifiable aspects of Photography. I could sense the direction Barthes wanted to go through the first chapter ‘Specialty of the Photograph’. He tried to define something by phenomenology
Russian Avant-Garde was born at the start of the 20th century out of intellectual and cultural turmoil. Through the analysis of artworks by Aleksandr Rodchenko and El Lissitzky, this essay attempts to explore the freedom experienced by artists after the Russian Revolution in 1917. This avant-garde movement was among the boldest and most advanced in Europe. It signified for many artists an end to the past academic conventions as they began to experiment with the notions of space, following the basic elements of colour, shape and line. They strove for a utopian existence for all, benefited by and inspired through the art they created.
In this essay, I shall try to examine how great a role colour played in the evolution of Impressionism. Impressionism in itself can be seen as a linkage in a long chain of procedures, which led the art to the point it is today. In order to do so, colour in Impressionism needs to be placed within an art-historical context for us to see more clearly the role it has played in the evolution of modern painting. In the late eighteenth century, for example, ancient Greek and Roman examples provided the classical sources in art. At the same time, there was a revolt against the formalism of Neo-Classicism. The accepted style was characterised by appeal to reason and intellect, with a demand for a well-disciplined order and restraint in the work. The decisive Romantic movement emphasized the individual’s right in self-expression, in which imagination and emotion were given free reign and stressed colour rather than line; colour can be seen as the expression for emotion, whereas line is the expression of rationality. Their style was painterly rather than linear; colour offered a freedom that line denied. Among the Romanticists who had a strong influence on Impressionism were Joseph Mallord William Turner and Eugéne Delacroix. In Turner’s works, colour took precedence over the realistic portrayal of form; Delacroix led the way for the Impressionists to use unmixed hues. The transition between Romanticism and Impressionism was provided by a small group of artists who lived and worked at the village of Barbizon. Their naturalistic style was based entirely on their observation and painting of nature in the open air. In their natural landscape subjects, they paid careful attention to the colourful expression of light and atmosphere. For them, colour was as important as composition, and this visual approach, with its appeal to emotion, gradually displaced the more studied and forma, with its appeal to reason.