 Ray
K. Metzker
11-18-2000 to 02-11-2001
Voyage of Discovery: The Landscape Photographs of Ray K. Metzker
The first survey of landscape work by this important American
artist, Voyage of Discovery presents more than 100 prints from a
remarkable body of photographs created by Ray K. Metzker between
1985 and 1998, most of which has never before been exhibited.
These exquisite images can be appreciated for the artist's
commanding mastery of the medium as well as for their
philosophical underpinnings.
Metzker turned suddenly to photographing the landscape in 1985
during an autumn trip to Tuscany, where he produced a series of
works titled Feste di Foglie (Celebration of Leaves). The artist's
joyous response to Italy launched him on a subject he would pursue
for more than a decade, resulting in one of the most poetic and
varied treatments of this subject in the history of photography.
These lyrical photographs are a significant departure from the
bold, urban images for which the artist previously had been known.
Subjects are often chosen because he perceives them as metaphors
for the human situation. In working in the landscape, Metzker has
challenged his own limits and extended his reach far beyond the
traditional approach.
The landscape series continued to grow and change into the early
1990s as the artist traveled to locations as diverse as Colorado,
Wisconsin, Turkey, and France, among others. The delicacy of line
evident in the earliest Feste images gave way, as the work
progressed, to more complex views that blur the distinction
between subject and background. Since 1994, Metzker has worked
almost exclusively in the Moab, Utah. Less intimate than the
images at the beginning of the project, these recent photographs
are more dramatic in capturing the sweep of Western vistas.
Born in Minnesota, Metzker has made his home in Philadelphia since
1962. Prior to that, he studied with Harry Callahan and Aaron
Siskind at the Institute of Design in Chicago. The artist has been
the recipient of many awards, including fellowships from the
Guggenhiem Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His
work from the past forty years is well represented in cultural
institutions in both the U.S. and abroad. The exhibition offers an
opportunity to see a master of the medium at the top of his game.
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