72 works illustrate the movement to establish photography as qualified fine art, equal with sculpture, painting and etching.
The BYU Museum of Art will be debuting its newest exhibition titled “Photo-Secession: Painterly Masterworks of Turn-of-the-Century Photography” on Aug. 11, 2017. The featured photography encompasses the visionary period beginning in 1902 when a group of photographers broke tradition and began using new painterly techniques.
These unconventional photographers “rejected the point-and-shoot approach to photography and embraced labor-intensive processes such as gum bichromate printing, which involved hand-coating artist papers with homemade emulsions and pigments, or they made platinum prints, which yielded rich, tonally subtle images.” as explained by The Metropolitan Museum of Art Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. This revolutionary concept, known as Pictorialism, strived to create photos that resembled etchings, drawings and oil paintings by manipulating negatives and prints. Alfred Stieglitz, the leader of the Photo-Secession group, and other photographers such as Heinrich Kühn, Gertrude Käsebier, Edward Steichen and Clarence White joined together to exhibit their work in the New York venue “Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession.” “This is an incredibly unique opportunity to see some of the most important early 20th-century photographers,” said MOA curator Janalee Emmer. “Alfred Stieglitz was such a critical figure in promoting photography and modern art, so it is really a privilege to see his work and the rising generation of photographers that he supported with early exhibitions and featured in his journal.” The 72 works in the exhibit are organized through art2art Circulating Exhibitions, LLC and come from the private collection of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg.
“Photo-Secession: Painterly Masterworks of Turn-of-the-Century Photography” also features the approach and transition from Pictorialism to Modernism starting with the work of Paul Strand in 1915-16. Museum Educator, Philipp Malzl said, “The work of these photographers is evidence that beauty and wonder can be found in seemingly mundane subjects and that photography has the power to enrich our everyday experience by inviting us to open our own eyes and truly see for ourselves anew the world around us.” The first public tour will be held on Oct. 11, 2017 from 12:10 - 12:40 p.m. That following week the exhibit will be celebrated at the Art After Dark event on Oct. 20, 2017 from 7 - 10 p.m. The exhibition will be displayed through Dec. 2, 2017.