This major retrospective presents the work of a critical figure in the history of modern art, American photographer and filmmaker Paul Strand (1890–1976), whose archive of nearly 4,000 prints stands as a cornerstone of the Museum’s collection. Emphasizing the influential artist’s most important projects from the 1910s through the 1960s, the exhibition surveys Strand’s entire life’s work, including his breakthrough trials in abstraction and candid street portraits, close-ups of natural and machine forms, and extended explorations of the American Southwest, Mexico, New England, France, Italy, Scotland, Egypt, Morocco, Ghana, and Romania.

This exhibition includes approximately 250 of Strand’s finest prints, selected primarily from the Museum’s holdings, with important early prints from public and private collections. The wide range of imagery highlights how Strand radically changed his work at several key moments in an effort to identify photography's pivotal role as a means of understanding and describing the modern world. The exhibition also features works by fellow artists from the Alfred Stieglitz circle (Georgia O’Keeffe, John Marin, and Arthur Dove), screenings of Strand’s films, and a selection of archival materials.

Organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in collaboration with Fundación MAPFRE.
Made possible by the Terra Foundation for American Art
Catalogue ' Paul Strand - Master of Modern Photography', ISBN 9780300207927

Paul Strand -
Curator Peter Barberie - Amanda N. Bock -

James Welling (*1951) legt seit 35 Jahren Werkgruppe um Werkgruppe mit sehr schöner und zugleich herausfordernder Fotografie vor. Er agiert im vielfältigen, "zwiespältigen" Feld zwischen Malerei, Skulptur und traditioneller Fotografie. Seit Mitte der 1970er Jahre hat er einen Fächer von Fragestellungen und Feldern aufgeworfen: Er spielt mit der Spannung zwischen Realismus und Transparenz, Abstraktion und Repräsentation, dem Optischen und dem Beschreibenden, dem persönlichen und dem kulturellen Gedächtnis, und natürlich auch mit der physikalischen und chemischen Natur der Fotografie. Sein Infragestellen von Gegebenem, die Zweifel und die Lust, das Vergangene und das Bestehende mit neuen künstlerisch-fotografischen Behauptungen herauszufordern, wirken sich direkt und aufregend auf sein Werk aus.
In Zusammenarbeit mit dem Cincinnati Art Museum.

James Welling (*1951) is an artist whose work occupies the grey areas between painting, sculpture, and traditional photography. For over 40 years his work has addressed the theme of representation and abstraction in the visual image. By critics, artists, and collectors alike he is considered a central figure in international contemporary photography. In addition to presenting Welling’s documentary oriented work, which follows the tradition of classical artistic photography, as exemplified by the work of Paul Strand, the exhibition Autograph also includes his abstract photograms.
Organized in collaboration with Cincinnati Art Museum.

James Welling -
Curator Thomas Seelig -