Search results for ""author april m. watson""

Vivid, clear-sighted images of American vernacular signage and architecture encountered along old US highways showcase the early black-and-white work of the acclaimed photographer Jim Dow The American photographer Jim Dow (b. 1942) is renowned for photographs that depict the built environment—he first gained attention for his panoramic triptychs of baseball stadiums—and for his skill at conveying the “human ingenuity and spirit” that suffuse the spaces. This book is the first to focus on Dow’s early black-and-white pictures, featuring more than 60 photographs made between 1967 and 1977, a majority of which have never before been published. Indebted to the work of Walker Evans, a key mentor of Dow’s, these photographs depict time-worn signage taken from billboards, diners, gas stations, drive-ins, and other small businesses. While still recognizable as icons of commercial Americana, without their context Dow’s signs impart ambiguous messages, often situated between documentation and abstraction. Including a new essay by Dow that reveals his own perspective on the development of the work, Signs suggests how these formative years honed the artist’s sensibility and conceptual approach.Distributed for The Nelson-Atkins Museum of ArtExhibition Schedule:The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (May 7–October 9, 2022)

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A novel look at the relationship between Impressionist painting and photography and the forging of a national identity in France between 1850 and 1880 Between 1850 and 1880, Impressionist landscape painting and early forms of photography flourished within the arts in France. In the context of massive social and political change that also marked this era, painters and photographers composed competing visions of France as modern and industrialized or as rural and anti-modern. Impressionist France explores the resonances between landscape art and national identity as reflected in the paintings and photographs made during this period, examining and illustrating in particular the works of key artists such as Édouard Baldus, Gustave Le Gray, the Bisson Frères, Édouard Manet, Jean-François Millet, Claude Monet, Charles Nègre, and Camille Pissarro. This ambitious premise focuses on the whole of France, exploring the relationship between landscape art and the notion of French nationhood across the country’s varied and spectacular landscapes in seven geographical sections and four scholarly essays, which provide new information regarding the production and impact of French Impressionism.Distributed for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Saint Louis Museum of ArtExhibition Schedule:Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art(10/19/13-02/09/14)Saint Louis Art Museum(03/16/14–07/06/14)

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How Hofer used the photobook form to chronicle American and European cities in an era of postwar transformation Evelyn Hofer was a highly innovative photographer whose prolific career spanned five decades. Despite her extraordinary output, she was underrecognized during her lifetime and was notably referred to by New York Times art critic Hilton Kramer as “the most famous unknown photographer in America.” She made her greatest impact through a series of photobooks, published throughout the 1960s, devoted to European and American cities, including Florence, London, New York, Washington and Dublin, and a book focused on the country of Spain. Comprising more than 100 photographs in both black and white and color, Eyes on the City accompanies the artist’s first major museum exhibition in the United States in over 50 years and is organized around her photobooks. The photographs feature landscapes and architectural views combined with portraiture, conveying the unique character and personality of these urban capitals during a period of intense structural, social and economic transformations after World War II. Evelyn Hofer (1922–2009) was born in Germany and moved to New York in 1946. She was an early adopter of color photography and published assignments for many major magazines including Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Hofer collaborated with authors such as Mary McCarthy and V.S. Pritchett on several books, including The Stones of Florence (1959), London Perceived (1962) and Dublin: A Portrait (1967). She died in Mexico City.

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