"James Welling: Photographs 1974-1999"
2000-05-06 until 2000-08-13
Wexner Center for the Arts
Columbus, OH, USA United States of America

James Welling's formally and technically exquisite photographs encompass a rich array of subjects: domestic interiors, wintry landscapes, trompe l'oeil abstractions, trains and railroad yards, factories, light fixtures, and 19th-century architecture. His choices of processes and equipment are equally diverse: photograms, traditional gelatin silver prints, Polaroids, and digitally processed prints; vintage view cameras and experimental shuttlerless ones. From the Polaroid Photographs of the mid-1970s to the New Abstractions of the late-1990s, he has ventured along many paths, some more traveled than others, rather than blindly pursuing a single goal.

This exhibition of over 100 photographs offers a rare opportunity to consider Welling's achievements over the last 25 years. Keenly aware of photographyÕs history, its early masters and its social context, he draws on this heritage, as well as on insights from post-minimalist thinking, in his work. As a result, his impressive and dramatic images offer a timely opportunity to examine new directions being forged within and against the conventions of traditional photography. The exhibition is accompanied by a 120-page illustrated catalogue with essays by critic and art historian Michael Fried and curator Sarah J. Rogers. Following its presentation in Columbus, the exhibition will travel to The Baltimore Museum of Art and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

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