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Land meets water – European and American photography from 1860 to the present

Past exhibition May 29 – September 27, 2015

Land Meets Water – European and American Photography from 1860 to the Present extended a series of exhibitions that Artipelag devoted to nature and its image in art. This time photography took centre stage, and the unifying theme was the elemental encounter of land and water, undisturbed by the presence of man.

Guest curator
Peter Galassi
Assistant curator
Frida Andersson

Peter Galassi about the exhibition:
“This exhibition is inspired by Artipelag’s extraordinary site. To a newcomer, the most enchanting aspect of Sweden’s natural beauty is the never-ending romance of land and water. Where there is water, there is land: countless islands, peninsulas, and twists and turns of the earth. Where there is land, there is water: rivers, streams, waterfalls, lakes. Throughout its history, photography has captured the elemental encounter of land and water and has recorded its rich variety, from grandeur and terrifying force to utter stillness and nourishing serenity.”

Peter Galassi (born in 1951) was a curator at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for three decades, including twenty years as Chief Curator of Photography  (1991–2011).  At MoMA he organized more than  40 exhibitions, including shows devoted to the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, Andreas Gursky, Michael Schmidt, Cindy Sherman and Jeff Wall. Today, Peter Galassi divides his time between New York and Stockholm.

Read more on our exhibtion blogg.

About Peter Galassi

Guest curator Peter Galassi has assembled more than 300 works, dating from the 1860s to the present, by European (mostly Scandinavian) and American photographers.  The exhibition presented photographs by both little-known and celebrated figures, which range in size from small stereographs made in Lappland in 1868 to the large color prints of today.  Significant groups of photographs by Ansel Adams, Lee Friedlander, Knud Knudsen, Axel Lindahl, Sune Jonsson, and Edward Weston are included.  Among the contemporary participating artists were Robert Adams, Olaf Otto Becker, Jim Bengston, Lois Conner, Ann Christine Eek, Olafur Eliasson, Andreas Gursky, and Jem Southam.

Photographs from Värmdö by Stuart Klipper

In connection with the exhibition, Artipelag commissioned American photographer Stuart Klipper to make color panoramas in the nearby archipelago on the island of Värmdö. Large prints of these photographs were displayed in the space between Artiepelag’s large windows and the temporary walls that protect the photogaphs in the exhibition from the bright sunlight.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Adams Ansel
Adams Robert
Alveng Dag
Andersson Karl Fr.
Becker Olaf Otto
Bengtson Jim
Benson Richard
Bullock Wynn
Callahan Harry
Caponigro Paul
Conner Lois
Connor Linda
Cooper, Thomas Joshua
Curman Carl

Collett Robert
Düben Lotten von
Eek Ann Christine
Eliasson Olafur
Friedlander Lee
Gursky Andreas
Hildebrand Bror Emil
Jachna Joseph
Jonsson Sune
Klein Kirsten
Klett Mark
Klipper Stuart
Knudsen Knud
Krabbe Thomas Neergaard

Lindahl Axel
Nilsson Pål-Nils
Nixon Nicholas
O’Sullivan Timothy
Porter Eliot
Southam Jem
Szarkowski John
Watkins Carleton E.
Weston Brett,
Weston Edward
White Minor
Zeitler Hendrik