Feature Articles


May Issue 2002

Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, Joins Celebration of Ansel Adams

To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces. Impressions are not enough. Design, style, and technique, these too are not enough. Art must reach further than impressions or self-revelation. Art is the affirmation of life. And life, or its eternal evidence, is everywhere.
- Ansel Adams

On May 11, 2002, the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, celebrates the 100th anniversary of Ansel Adams's birthday. A selection of 50 of his works from several public and private collections will be on display as the museum salutes America's most heralded landscape photographer. The exhibition will remain on view through Aug. 4, 2002.

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) was born in San Francisco and was a pioneer of the new pictorial landscape style and viewed the wilderness as a metaphor for freedom. His special creativity was his ability to visualize the combined effect of exposure and development of the final image.

Adams took his first photograph with a Kodak Brownie box camera in Yosemite Valley when he was fourteen. While he trained as a concert pianist from 1914 through 1927, he also studied photography with photo-finisher Frank Dittman. By 1930, photography became his career choice and the American western landscape his focus. He was a key figure in the founding of Group f/64 with famous photographers, Edward Weston, Imogene Cunningham, and others in 1932. Adams was also influential in founding the department of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY, in 1940; the department of photography at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, CA, in 1946 and The Friends of Photography in Carmel, CA, in 1967.

At the onset of World War II Adams went to Washington, DC, where he worked as a photomuralist for the Department of the Interior. It was during this time that he began to perfect his famous approach to exposure, processing and printing. A skilled writer and teacher, he had a tremendous impact in the history of creative photography. From 1955 until 1984, he conducted annual photography workshops.

Adams was also recognized as an ardent and effective conservationist and served as a member of the Sierra Club board of directors from 1934 to 1971. During his lifetime he received numerous awards, but his most treasured was the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by President Carter in 1980 for his conservation work.

The photographs on exhibit at the Gibbes are some of Adams's most famous works, many of which were taken in California, Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas and Alaska between 1930 and 1960. Thanks to his technical virtuosity and sensitive eye, these dramatic images remain profound reminders of Adams's reverence for the beauty of the earth and the healing force of nature in our lives.

History comes to life at the Gibbes Museum of Art as the museum also presents Art in America: A Southern Prospective. The exhibition, made up of more than 50 of the most famous and historic pieces collected by the Gibbes, highlights significant works that convey a Southern perspective of American history. Whether through patronage, the subject matter or the artist, each object is linked to the history of art in Charleston. Together they tell a story of art in the South.

This survey of the permanent collection includes still lifes, portraits and landscapes that span more than 300 years of history. Beginning with a 17th century portrait by Henrietta Johnston, the first professional woman artist in America, the exhibition takes you through the centuries ending with works by contemporary artists such as Jonathan Green and Jasper Johns, considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century. The exhibition also features works by famous artists such as Benjamin West, William Silva, Thomas Sully, Gilbert Stuart and Elliott Daingerfield.

"This exhibition brings the South to life through significant works of art," said Angela Mack, Curator of Collections. "It's wonderful to be able to see firsthand the cultural heritage, homes and lifestyles of those who lived before us."

Art in America: A Southern Prospective will be on display in the Main and Rotunda Galleries until Jan. 5, 2003.

For further information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings or call the Museum at 843/722-2706 or on the web at (www.gibbes.com).

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