Truthiness and the News, →

On View Oct 12, 2019 - Mar 29, 2020

Truthiness and the News explores the evidentiary role of photography, from the heyday of newsprint in the first half of the twentieth century to the current age of post-truth politics. Presaging the contemporary turn to “alternative facts” and “fake news,” photographs in print journalism have always offered a multiplicity of truths depending on when and how editors chose to print them. Featuring works from the 1940s to the present, this exhibition highlights photojournalists and socially engaged photographers, such as Charles “Teenie” Harris and Barbara Norfleet, alongside spreads from the newspapers and magazines that published their photographs, and contemporary works responding to the dissemination of the news today. Displaying lush photographs of current events as “art” next to the same images presented as “news” offers rich insights into the way photography informs our politics and beliefs.

Artists included in the show: Jules Aarons, Richard Avedon, Claire Beckett, Kevin Bubriski, Sarah Charlesworth, Sajada Domino, Charles “Teenie” Harris, Lotte Jacobi, Justin Kimball, Barbara Kruger, Rania Matar, Lisette Model, Barbara Norfleet, Lorraine O’Grady, Richard Roth, Steven Siegel, Sage Sohier, Jim Stone, The Yes Men, Panos Tsagaris, Andy Warhol.

Organized by Sam Adams, Koch Curatorial Fellow.

All the Marvelous Surfaces: Photography Since Karl Blossfeldt →

On View Oct 12, 2019 - Mar 29, 2020

This group exhibition is inspired by German photographer Karl Blossfeldt’s acclaimed Art Forms in Nature (1928), a collection of magnified plant specimens that immediately enthralled viewers with exquisite details of curling flower petals and the fractal growth of leaves. Originally used as models for craft and design students, this body of work is now considered one of the finest photographic projects of the early twentieth century. All the Marvelous Surfaces reorients photography through Blossfeldt’s focus on patterning, scale, and surface detail, establishing his impact on the evolution of modern and contemporary photographic practices. The show delves into issues such as biases against ornamentation, the rise of surrealist estrangement, and the intersections of photography and sculpture throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Drawn mainly from deCordova’s permanent collection, the artists on view range from mid-century masters such as Aaron Siskind and Harold Edgerton to contemporary figures who are advancing the photographic medium today, including Ellen Carey, Matt Saunders, and Erin Shirreff.   

Artists included in the show: David Akiba, Lucas Blalock, Karl Blossfeldt, Doug Bosch, Stephen Brigidi, Maryjean Viano Crowe, Harold Edgerton, Lalla Essaydi, Audrey Flack, Hilary French, Corin Hewitt, Henry Horenstein, Lucy Kim, Justin Kimball, Michael Kolster, Calvin Kowal, Salvatore Mancini, Abelardo Morell, Yamini Nayar, Matt Saunders, Gary Schneider, Kahn/Selesnick, Erin Shirreff, Aaron Siskind, Neal Slavin, Edward Steichen, and Bradford Washburn.

Organized by Sarah Montross, Senior Curator, with Elizabeth Upenieks, Curatorial Assistant.