Exhibition Dates: June 3—August 17, 2003
Exhibition Location: The Howard Gilman Gallery, Second Floor
Press Preview: Monday, June 2, 10 a.m. – noon
Some 40 vintage photographs from the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Gilman Paper Company will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from June 3 through August 17, 2003, complementing The Photography of Charles Sheeler. Ranging from Frederick H. Evans's rich platinum prints of the interior of William Morris's home (1896), to Ralph Steiner's Power Lines and Insulators (1929), Charles Sheeler's Contemporaries will feature works by early 20th-century photographers who drew inspiration from the American city, the machine, and the radical innovations of European modernists.
Among the highlights of Charles Sheeler's Contemporaries will be images by Morton Schamberg, one of Sheeler's close friends, with whom he discovered the Bucks County vernacular architecture that inspired his first serious attempts at photography. Photographs by important members of the American avant-garde between the two world wars will also be featured, including those of Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen (who helped to launch Sheeler's commercial photographic career), Paul Strand, and Edward Weston, among others. By sketching out this aesthetic environment, Charles Sheeler's Contemporaries brings into focus the nature and scope of Sheeler's photographic accomplishments.
The exhibition is organized by Lisa Hostetler, Research Associate in the Metropolitan's Department of Photographs.
The Museum will offer a variety of educational programs in conjunction with the exhibition, including gallery talks and poetry readings.
Charles Sheeler's Contemporaries will be featured on the Museum's Web site at www.metmuseum.org.