I have always appreciated art, even when I knew little about it. My first academic exposure to art history began with a survey course in college and the love affair grew from there. My tastes are eclectic and I collect anything that appeals to me, but my early focus as a collector was in photography and it comprises the majority of my holdings.
While there are no formal collecting guidelines I follow, I like works that can stand alone visually without any commentary. I am drawn to images that work on multiple levels, especially the challenging, complex, and enigmatic. Print quality is very important and if deciding between two equally good works, I gravitate towards the image that adds depth to my collection.
My earliest purchases were of the 20th-century masters such as Atget, Weston, and Walker Evans, but my buying practices quickly broadened to contemporary and emerging artists, along with the more established names.
For this exhibition, given the Grolier Club’s bibliophilic raison d’être, I have chosen works that use books and photographic paper as the launching point for creating new works of art that also honor the medium and the materials underpinning them. These four works address diverse themes from social activism and history of art to approbation and process. They underscore the power and creativity of works on paper.
Justine Kurland Stephen Shore, Uncommon Places. 2019. Collage (hardcover)
In a frontal assault on the art patriarchy, Kurland takes photobooks of her eminent male predecessors and contemporaries and deconstructs them into new works by collaging the selected images onto the actual covers of these books. While metaphorically deconstructing the patriarchy, she also acknowledges their significant influence.
Anastasia Samoylova Breakfast with Paul Outerbridge 1937, 2017. Digital pigment print
This work is from Samoylova’s “Breakfast” series, where she combines an open photobook with breakfast items on and around the chosen image. Part still life, part exploration of the interplay between 2D and 3D inherent in photographs, she masterfully combines a strong color sense while paying homage to those who impacted her development. She highlights the value of books in making art accessible at any time of day.
Wolfgang Tillmann Paper drop (passage) X. 2019 Inkjet print on paper
In his paper drop series, Tillmans elevates photographic paper from the “stage” into the star itself. Folding a piece of photo paper into a paper drop shape, he makes, as he says, “a photo of a photo.” All of the key elements of photography are in play here: light, shadow, line, form and both depth and two dimensionality. This particular image seems at first glance black and white, yet it is a color work.
