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Indepth Arts News:
"John Gutmann: Instant Messaging"
2006-01-05 until 2006-02-25
Laurence Miller Gallery
New York, NY,
USA United States of America
From January 5 through February 25, 2006, Laurence Miller Gallery will feature Instant Messaging, a selection of photographs by John Gutmann, mostly taken in the mid -to -late 30's, primarily around his new home in San Francisco. In this age of PDI's, PDM's and cell-phone cameras, it is worth remembering
that "instant messaging" once meant large lettering and pictures to be read from across the road. Journalism was printed or broadcast via radio, and
photography embraced its decisive moments. Everyone had a message, and to
get it across it had to be clear and bold.
In these intimate vintage black
and white prints, we read signs that say "WE WANT THE 40 HOUR WEEK" and "FOR
THE PROTECTION OF LIVES CUT YOUR SPEED." Automobiles became billboards,
where messages were posted, both private (CQ de SM5YU) and public (GOD IS
LOVE). Even the 1936 presidential election results were listed in a Reno
casino on a large blackboard, like scores from a college basketball
tournament.
John Gutmann (1905 - 1998) arrived in the United States, via ship, from his
native Germany in 1933. Trained as a painter, aware of the Bauhaus, he was
visually alert and sophisticated. Today, he has become internationally
recognized for his photography. His photographs are in 40 museum
collections world-wide, and he has had one-person shows at Museum of Modern
Art, New York, SFMoMA, LA County Museum, Museo Casa Natal de Jovellanos,
Spain. Two important monographs of his pictures have been published: The
Restless Decade, John Gutmann's Photographs of the Thirties, and The
Photography of John Gutmann: Culture Shock.
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