New exhibits at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) shed light on two little-known American modern artists of the 20th century: Imogen Cunningham, a pioneering female photographer and Terry Winters, a painter, draughtsman and printmaker whose focus lies at the intersection of art and science.
Cunningham, a West Coast-based photographer who enjoyed a lengthy career from 1901 through her death in 1976, made her name with a series of large-format botanical photographs.
âSheâs the unsung hero of American photography,â Karen Haas, the museumâs Lane curator of photographs, said about Cunningham. âSheâs the woman who never got nearly as much attention as her male counterparts, and I think sheâs long overdue for a reevaluation.â
The exhibit, titled âImogen Cunningham: In Focusâ, highlights the broad range of styles and techniques employed by Cunningham in her lengthy career, through about 35 works of her own, as well as photographs of the artist herself.
âShe was really considered one of the most â if not, the most â famous female photographer in the United States in the â70s,â Haas said. âShe was such a groundbreaking figure and so ahead of the curve in terms of discovering the Modernist style of photography that we think of today: A large format camera, sharp focus, incredible lighting, textures, all of that.â
Associated with Ansel Adams and other iconic American photographers of the time, she later became a portrait artist, working for publications like Vanity Fair, where she would photograph stars without makeup, according to The Surrey gallery.
While most early photographers seemed to be âapologizing for their medium,â Haas said, Cunningham aimed directly at the mechanical precision a camera allows. This approach helped establish photography as one of the quintessential Modernist art mediums and made something of a celebrity of the photographer.
âShe described herself as having âone hand in the dishpan, one hand in the darkroomâ at a time when most women did not tackle careers, much less in photography,â Haas said. â[This exhibit] is not just about getting her name talked about again. She was a real free thinker. You could drop her into a gathering of artists today and sheâd fit right in.â
Directly next to âIn Focusâ in the gallery space reserved for works on paper is âTerry Winters: The Structure of Things,â which showcases the New York artistâs printmaking and drawing abilities. Winters, alive and working today, is known mainly for his paintings, which he began creating in the early â80s.
âWe have been steadily collecting prints and drawings of his and thatâs quite visible in the show,â Clifford Ackley, Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro curator of prints and drawings, said. âThereâs a very interesting interrelationship between all three types of media he uses. Our installation really sets up a dialogue between the different pieces in his work.â
âThe Structure of Thingsâ presents approximately 50 works by Winters, ranging from drawings, lithographs, collages and etchings, in a semi-chronological manner. The numerous forms of media provide a glimpse into how an artistâs interests can bleed throughout their entire oeuvre.
âFor contemporary artists, heâs considered a kind of young old master of contemporary art,â Ackley says. âWhat a lot of artists relate to with Winters is his sense of abstraction; itâs not about pure design but wonderfully impure and related to images from the fields of botany, biology, neuroscience, physics and such.â
Wintersâ interest in modern scientific structures perfectly complements Cunninghamâs innovative style of photography, and both exhibits reveal a move by the museum to highlight more contemporary artists in the coming year.
âImogen Cunningham: In Focusâ and âTerry Winters: The Structure of Thingsâ will be on display at the Museum of Fine Arts through June 18, 2017.
Photo by Brian Bae