Butler to host exhibition of acclaimed photography

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

“American Photography: Selections from the Wells Fargo Art Collection,” a photo exhibition, opens Sunday at the Butler Institute of American Art and runs through Dec. 31. The 40-plus photographs in the exhibition are from the corporate art collection of Wells Fargo & Co.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our visitors to experience an extraordinary survey of America’s photographic heritage,” said Louis Zona, director of the museum. “These are classic works that speak volumes about the contributions made by American photographers.”

At the turn of the 20th century, photography was not yet recognized as an art form. It was still considered a means of objective, scientific recording. Alfred Stieglitz, seeking to elevate the art world’s regard for photography, opened the first gallery devoted exclusively to photography at 291 Fifth Avenue (often referred to as simply “291”) in New York City.

Stieglitz’s photograph “Spring Showers, New York,” which is included in the Butler exhibition, illustrates Pictorialism, an early 20th-century photographic style typified by dreamy, atmospheric effects created through image manipulation. Not long after opening 291, Stieglitz rejected Pictorialism in favor of non-manipulated photography, which championed the ideals of Modernism — bold geometric compositions that are well-structured and defined by light contrasts.

Many works in the Butler exhibit display the tenets of Modernism, including Paul Strand’s “Abstraction, Bowls,” as well as Imogen Cunningham’s “Succulent.”

The exhibit also features works inspired by avant-garde movements that emerged between World War I and World War II, and also includes examples of experimental abstractions by Harry Callahan, Lotte Jabobi, Gyorgy Kepes (a founding member of the New Bauhaus, and later the Chicago Institute of Design), and Nathan Lerner.

Fine examples of American street photography from the 1940s and 1950s are included in the show. Dorothea Lange, Helen Levitt, William Weegee, Bill Witt, and Max Yavno captured random moments in the lives of ordinary people living in post-World War II California and New York City. The exhibit’s contemporary works include photographs by William Clift, Bob Kolbrener, Abelardo Morell, and Madoka Tagaki.