The show, organized by Frances Colpitt (School of Art) examines color as a subject matter in works by John Baldessari, Sarah Charlesworth, William Eggleston, Russell Lee, Thomas Ruff, Stephen Shore, Allison V. Smith, and Ann Stautberg. The exhibition charts the merger of art and photography in the 1970s to the present. During this period, both the photo-world and the art-world were transformed by the conflict of photography’s high technical and aesthetic standards and the intentionally amateur and nonchalant approach to the camera by conceptually oriented artists who used the camera to document their often ephemeral materials and elusive ideas.
Their rocky fusion led not only to the acceptance of the photographic medium as a legitimate tool for art making but an unparalleled growth in the number of artists using the camera in the 1980s and '90s. Although the exhibition includes color photography, it does not focus solely on the technical aspects of color photography but on the importance played by color in the work of each artist, offering a variety of insights into the meaningful role of color in visual art and the visible world.
“Color Pictures” is accompanied by a catalogue, with essays, color plates, and a checklist, available at a reception April 5. Individual artist entries were written by graduate students in the School of Art who participated in a graduate art history seminar. Photography In/As/Not As Art, in spring 2011. Dr. Colpitt has contributed an essay outlining the issues at stake in the use of color in recent photography.