Exhibition Review: Photography's Last Century
Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #48, 1979.
You know the feeling of walking into a gallery and being wondrously transported to a different place and time? While the word “vibe” might be stale and over-used, the time to invoke it – if there is one – is here. From the moment one steps into a gallery, the “vibe” is a critical aspect of the experience. The curation, the space itself, the atmosphere, the lighting all contribute to the ability to lose yourself and surrender to the artwork. It’s the precise crafting of these various components that enables you to look past the space and find a greater truth in the featured work – forgetting you are in a “gallery” in the first place, transported to somewhere you’ve never been.
Andreas Gursky, Prada II, 1996.
Sadly, Photography’s Last Century at the Metropolitan Museum of Art did no such thing. I was painfully aware the entire time that I was in Met’s Fifth Avenue, Galleries 691–693. This is not to say that the photography wasn’t astounding – because, of course, it was. The photographs were quintessential and notable pieces from the past century, as the exhibition title indicates. The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection: Photography’s Last Century opened March 9th to the press on a sunny day when the idea that the Corona virus could halt the impending Spring felt impossibly cynical. The exhibition was set to run through the end of June, although of course, that may no longer be true. We do not know the future of this exhibition’s run cycle.
Laurie Simmons. Woman Interior I, 1976.
Photography’s Last Century featured works by celebrated masters, lesser-known artists, and everyone in between. The impressive list of photographers included Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Ilse Bing, Joseph Cornell, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Andreas Gursky, Helen Levitt, Dora Maar, László Moholy-Nagy, Jack Pierson, Sigmar Polke, Man Ray, Laurie Simmons, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, Edward Weston, and Rachel Whiteread.
During the opening remarks at the press preview, Max Hollein, Director of The Met, said, “This collection encourages a deeper understanding of the formative years of photography, and significantly enhances our holdings of key works by women, broadening the stories we can tell in our galleries and allowing us to celebrate a whole range of crucial artists at The Met. We are extremely grateful to Ann and Tom for their generosity in making this promised gift to The Met, especially as we celebrate the Museum’s 150th anniversary. It will be an honor to share these remarkable works with our visitors.”
Florence Henri. Windows, 1929.
The galleries included a diverse range of styles and photographic practices, combining small-scale and large-format works in both color and black-and-white. The presentation integrated early modernist photographs with work from the postwar period, the 1960s, and the medium’s boom in the late 1970s and early 1980s, continuing to the present moment.
It would be safe to assume that most anyone would recognize a fair number of the photographs featured on these walls. From Diane Arbus’ photograph Identical Twins, Roselle N.J. 1966 to Richard Avedon’s Andy Warhol and Members of the Factory, New York City, October 30, 1969, each image announces itself as already worthy of its place here. It does not need you to confirm it. They do not need you at all. Perhaps that was why nothing gripped me, and why I was left unmoved. The feeling was disappointing and incongruous to the time and place, surrounded by century’s most acclaimed and iconic photographs.
Dora Maar, Pierre Kéfer. Woman and child in window, Barcelona, 1932-34.
