Selected exhibitions in chronological order with exact dates when known.
Shows we are specifically researching for additional information about are
listed at the bottom. If you see omissions, corrections or can make additions we
look forward to hearing from you.
Particularly significant one-man exhibitions or group shows, in bold type.
1932 |
|
First Annual Exhibition of Watercolor Painting
5-December to 8-January
California Palace of the Legion of Honor
"Buildings" accepted [Frederico Sommer]
Original with acceptance stamp in Frederick & Frances Sommer Foundation
|
1933 |
|
Increase Robinson Gallery |
1936 |
|
One night show in Prescott
12-February
Monday Club, with Charles Dockum & Charles Tracy |
1936 |
|
Six Americans
8-September to 19-September
Howard Putzel Gallery |
1937 |
|
Frederick Sommer
January
Howard Putzel Gallery |
1941 |
|
Images of Freedom
29-October to 1-Feb
Museum of Modern Art, NY (hereafter MOMA) |
1946 |
|
New Photographers
18-June to 15-September
MOMA |
1946 |
|
Frederick Sommer [exact title not confirmed]
15-October to 11-November
Santa Barbara Museum of Art |
1947 |
|
International Surrealist Exhibition
7-July to 30-September
Galerie Maeght, Paris, France |
1948 |
|
In and Out of Focus: A Survey of Today's Photography
7-April to 11-July
MOMA |
1949 |
|
Photographs and Drawings by Frederick Sommer
14-February to 28-February
Charles Egan Gallery |
1949 |
|
Realism in Photography
27-July to 25-September
MOMA |
1950 |
|
Photography at Mid-Century
30-April to 4-June
Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
1950 |
|
51 American Photographers
2-August to 17-September
MOMA |
1951 |
|
Abstraction in Photography
2-May to 4-July
MOMA |
1952 |
|
Diogenes with a Camera I
21-May to 17-August
MOMA |
1952 |
|
Two Ways in Photography
1-December to 31-December
Institute of Design, Chicago, with Helen Levitt |
1953 |
|
The West
1-June to 1-September
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center |
1953 |
|
Contemporary Photography
29-August to 4-October
Japan |
1953 |
|
Contemporary American Photography
MOMA traveling show
Paris; Zurich; The Hague; Linz, Austria; Belgrade, Yugoslavia |
1954 |
|
Subjective Fotografie 2
27-November to 27-January |
1954 |
|
Camera Consciousness
(or the problems of photographing people as individuals)
George Eastman House |
1954 |
|
[exact title not known]
March
Wittenborn Bookstore Gallery, NY |
1955 |
|
Frederick Sommer
7-July to 26-July
Apartment Gallery Frank |
1955 |
|
[an exhibit at the German-American Library, Karlsruhe,
Germany]
Dec. to 31-January
German-American Library, with Charles Schleeter & Frederick O'Hara
|
1956 |
|
Contemporary American Photography
Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris |
1957 |
|
Drawings, Paintings and Photographs
10-December to 17-January
Institute of Design, Chicago |
1958 |
|
Photographs from the Museum Collection, MOMA
26-November to 18-January, 1959
|
1959 |
|
Photography in the Fine Arts :
An Exhibition of Great Contemporary Photographs
8-May to 7-September
Metropolitan Museum of Art
|
1959 |
|
Photographer's Choice
Spring
Dept. of Fine Arts, Indiana University, Bloomington
|
1959 |
|
Wittenborn Bookstore Gallery, NY |
1960 |
|
The Sense of Abstraction
17-February to 10-April
MOMA |
1960 |
|
Recent Acquisitions
December 21, 1960 to February 5, 1961
MOMA |
1961 |
|
Director's Choice
Philadelphia Museum College of Art |
1961 |
|
Twentieth-Century American Art
Kalamazoo Institute of Art |
1962 |
|
Fifty Great Photographs from the Museum of Modern Art
April 3 to May 15
MOMA
(cited as 50 Photographs by 50 Photographers at MOMA website) |
1963 |
|
Frederick Sommer
9-March to 7-April
Art Institute of Chicago, curated by Hugh Edwards |
1963 |
|
Photographs from the Southwest |
1964 |
|
The Art of Photography
28-January to March
Cleveland Museum of Art
Four-man show with Philip Hyde, Brett Weston & Minor White |
1964 |
|
Photography 64 / An Invitational Exhibition
1-September
New York Exposition, co-sponsored by GEH, Rochester
and New York State Exposition |
1965 |
|
Contemporary Photographs from the GEH Collection 1900-1964
22-January to 22-February
George Eastman House, Rochester |
1965 |
|
Photography in America 1850-1965
13-October to 28-November
Yale University Art Gallery |
1965 |
|
Frederick Sommer: An Exhibition of Photographs
22-February to 1-April
Washington D.C., travels to
Pasadena Art Museum, CA, 25-May to 27-June |
1965 |
|
Recent Acquisitions
5-October to 9-January, 1966
MOMA |
1967 |
|
Photography in the Twentieth-Century
16-February to 2-April
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario |
1967 |
|
Six Photographers
5-March to 9-April
University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana |
1967 |
|
Three Photographers
3-October to 30-October
San Fernando Valley State College, with Wynn Bullock & Edmund Teske
|
1967 |
|
[Frederick Sommer, exact title unconfirmed]
May to 18-June
Museum of Northern Arizona |
1968 |
|
Frederick Sommer
1-November to 30-November
Philadelphia College of Art, travels to:
RISD; Institute of Design, Chicago; SFMOMA, San Francisco |
1969 |
|
Portrait Photographs
9-July to 28-September
MOMA |
1969 |
|
Human Concern / Personal Torment : The Grotesque in
American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art |
1969 |
|
Master Photographs from the Museum of Modern Art
MOMA |
1969 |
|
Photographs from the Coke Collection
Museum of Albuquerque
Travels to: New York (1971); Santa Fe, NM (1973); Davis, CA (1974) |
1971 |
|
Thirteen Photographers
4-November to 5-December
Light Gallery, NY
This is the inaugural show, the other 12 photographers were: Thomas
Barrow, Michael Bishop, Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, Robert Fichter, Emmet
Gowin, Roger Mertin, Bea Nettles, Prince, Aaron Siskind, Keith Smith and
Todd Walker. |
1972 |
|
[Frederick Sommer]
9-October to 4-November
Light Gallery, NY |
1972 |
|
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University |
1973 |
|
[Frederick Sommer]
October
Light Gallery, NY |
1973 |
|
After Audubon in Art
Thorne Memorial Art Gallery |
1973 |
|
Landscape and Discovery
Emily Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University |
1973 |
|
Light and Lens
Hudson River Museum |
1973 |
|
Photographs from the Collection of the University of New
Mexico
University of New Mexico Art Museum |
1973
1973 |
|
Photography in the Twentieth-Century
George Eastman House
Collage and the Photo-Image
17-July to 11-September
MOMA, NY |
1974 |
|
Photography from the Coke Collection
20-February to 15-March
Art Gallery, University of California, Davis |
1974 |
|
New Images In Photography
24-March to 21-April
Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami |
1974 |
|
Photography in America
13-October to 28-November
Whitney Museum of American Art |
1974 |
|
[Title unconfirmed]
26-October to 25-November
Columbia College Photography Gallery |
1974 |
|
[Title unconfirmed]
1-November to 23-November
Carl Siembab Gallery |
1974 |
|
Three Photographers
Lunn Gallery |
1975 |
|
From the Center for Creative Photography
15-May through August
Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
with Adams, Bullock, Callahan, Siskind, Sommer |
1975 |
|
Picture Puzzles
12-August to 16-November
MOMA
39 works by Robert Cumming, Clarence John Laughlin, Man Ray & Sommer
|
1976 |
|
Photographic Process as Medium
25-January to 7-March
Rutgers University Art Gallery |
1976 |
|
The Photographer and the Artist
7-February to 6-March
Sidney Janis Gallery, NY |
1976 |
|
Selections from the Center for Creative Photography
Collection
20-March to 25-April
Tucson Museum of Art |
1976 |
|
The Golden Door: Artist-Immigrants of America 1876-1976
20-May to 20-October
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden |
1976 |
|
American Photography of the Twentieth-Century:
Master Works from California Collections
Mount St. Mary's College Art Gallery |
1976 |
|
Modern Portraits: The Self and Others
Wildenstein Gallery |
1976 |
|
The UCLA Collection of Contemporary American Photographs
Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, Univ. of California, Los Angeles |
1976 |
|
Twentieth-Century Photographs
Montgomery Art Gallery, Pomona College |
1977 |
|
Target Collection of American Photography
25-February to 1-May
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
1977 |
|
[Frederick Sommer]
9-March to 2-April
Light Gallery, NY with Michael Bishop and Carl Toth |
1977 |
|
Arizona: Ansel Adams and Frederick Sommer
6-October to 4-November
Arizona Bank Galleria, Phoenix, Arizona |
1977 |
|
Collecting Photographs: A Personal Choice
Collection from Barbara Kasten and Leland Rice
7-December to 1-January
Focus Gallery |
1978 |
|
Dada and Surrealism Reviewed
10-January to 10-March |
1978 |
|
Forty American Photographers
4-February to 5-March
E.B. Crocker Art Gallery |
1978 |
|
Photographs from the Sam Wagstaff Collection
4-February to 26-March
Corcoran Gallery of Art, travels to five additional venues. |
1978 |
|
The Photograph as Artifice
3-April to 30-April
The Art Galleries, California State University, Long Beach
Travels to: Grossmont Art Gallery, Pomona; Friends of Photography, Carmel;
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA |
1978 |
|
Amerikanische Landshaftsphotographie 1860-1978
|
1979 |
|
Frederick Sommer
7-September to 29-September
Light Gallery, NY, with William Larson |
1979 |
|
Photographic Surrealism
3-October to 28-November
New Gallery of Contemporary Art
Travels to: Dayton Art Institute; Brooklyn Museum |
1979 |
|
Frederick Sommer
9-October to 4-November
Art Museum, Princeton University |
1979 |
|
Fabricated to be Photographed
16-November to 30-December
SFMOMA, 18 photographers, 112 photographs, travels to 4 venues |
1979 |
|
Blair House - Vice President's Residence
c 1977 c 1981 Vice President's Residence: Blair House |
1979 |
|
Abstract Photography in America: 1935-1950
Syracuse University, Lubin House |
1979 |
|
Approaches to Photography: A Historical Survey
Amarillo Arts Center |
1980 |
|
Frederick Sommer at Seventy-Five: A Retrospective
11-February to 9-March
Art Museum and Galleries, California State Univ., Long Beach
Travels to: Seattle Art Museum; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; Art
Museum, Univ. New Mexico, Albuquerque; Herbert F. Johnson Art Museum,
Cornell University; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Corcoran Gallery of Art,
Washington D.C.; added International Center for Photography, NY (Aug. 14 to
Sept. 20, 1981) |
1980 |
|
Light Abstractions
1-April to 30-April
University of St. Missouri, St. Louis
50 photographs by 10 photographers
Travels: April 1-April 30, Gallery 210, University of Missouri-St. Louis;
May 18 - June 21 Museum of Art and Archaeology, Univ. of Mo./Columbia; June
30 - July 20, Minnesota Museum of Art; August 1 - August 28 Aspen Center for
Visual Arts; September 14 - October 26 University Art Museum, University of
New Mexico |
1980 |
|
Photo-Collecting at Vassar, 100 Years + 10
7-April to 12-June
Vassar College Art Gallery |
1980 |
|
Venus, Jupiter and Mars: Photographs of Frederick Sommer
28-April to 8-June
Delaware Art Museum, curated by John Weiss |
1980 |
|
Cliché-verre: Hand-drawn, Light Printed:
A Survey of the Medium from 1839 to the Present
12-July to 12-August
Detroit Institute for the Arts, travels to, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
|
1980 |
|
Photography of the 50s: An American Perspective
28-September to 13-November
Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, travels to:
International Cent of Photography, NY; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Art
Museum and Galleries, California State Univ., Long Beach; Delaware Art
Museum, Wilmington |
1981 |
|
Acquisitions 1973-1980
12-June to 20-September
George Eastman House |
1981 |
|
American Landscapes
9-July to 4-October
MOMA
39 photographers; 55 photographs |
1981 |
|
Frederick Sommer: Photographs, Drawings and Musical
Scores
17-October to 22-November
Serpentine Gallery, London
A version of the Long Beach show, Sommer at 75 |
1981 |
|
Twentieth-Century Photographs from the Museum of Modern Art
Seibu Museum |
1982 |
|
Photography 1922-1982: Dialogue of the Young Generation
17-September to 12-October
Photokina, Cologne, Germany |
1983 |
|
Two Men, Two Visions
8-September to 15-October
Fraenkel Gallery, with Faurest Davis |
1984 |
|
Frederick Sommer: A Selection of Photographs and Drawings
3-March to 3-April
University of Bridgeport |
1985 |
|
Signs of the Times :
Some Recurring Motifs in Twentieth-Century Photography
10-May to 14-July
SFMOMA, San Francisco |
1985 |
|
Frederick Sommer :
An exhibition in honour of the photographer's 80th birthday
22-June to 25-September
High Museum of Art, Georgia |
1986 |
|
Frederick Sommer: Photographs and Drawings
20-February to 22-March
Pace/MacGill Gallery, NY |
1987 |
|
Photography and Art: Interactions Since 1946
4-June to 30-August
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) |
1987 |
|
A Collection Revisited
The Chrysler Museum |
1988 |
|
Where Images Come From (Mistress of this World Has No
Name)
12-March to 8-May
Denver Art Museum, travels to: Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario (June 2 -
July 10); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Aug. 6 - Oct. 16); Phoenix Art Museum
(Nov. 19 - Jan. 15, 1989); Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth (Feb. 10 - April
9, 1989); Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City (Aug. 5-Sept. 24); Mills
College, Oakland (Nov. 5-Dec. 17) |
1988 |
|
Photographs by Frederick Sommer from the Indiana Art Museum
10-May to 26-June
University of Michigan, Museum of Art |
1989 |
|
Symbol and Surrogate: the picture within
19-November to 22-December
University of Hawaii at Manoa Art Gallery |
1990 |
|
Elective Affinities
12-October to 6-January
George Eastman House |
1991 |
|
Dreams, Lies, and Exaggerations: Photomontage in America
21-October to 20-December
Art Gallery, University of Maryland at College Park
9 photographers: 122 photographs |
1992 |
|
Frederick Sommer: Collages
11-July to 5-September
Turner/Krull Gallery, LA |
1992 |
|
Frederick Sommer: Horizonless Landscapes
29-October to 28-November
Pace/MacGill Gallery, NY |
1992 |
|
Frederick Sommer: Photograph and Collage
Photo Gallery International |
1994 |
|
Experimental Vision: Evolution in the Photogram Since 1919
15-January to 27-March
Denver Art Museum
27 photographers: 50 photographs |
1994 |
|
Frederick Sommer: 12 Collages
8-May to 7-August
Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona |
1994 |
|
Frederick Sommer: Works from the Collection 1940-1990
13-September to 23-October
The Art Museum, Princeton University |
1994 |
|
Frederick Sommer: Poetry and Logic
6-December to 12-February
J. Paul Getty Museum |
1994 |
|
Recent Collages
8-December to 14-January
Pace/MacGill Gallery, NY |
1994 |
|
American Surrealist Photography from the Collection
15-April to 5-July
MOMA |
1995 |
|
Frederick Sommer: The Elegant Kinship of Constellations,
photographs, collages, and drawings
Guest Curator Leland Rice
8-September to 12-October
Center for Photographic Art, Carmel California |
1995 |
|
Language of Light:
Masterworks from the collection organized by the George Eastman House
International Museum of Photography and Film
18-November to 15-January
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography |
1996 |
|
Enduring Illusion
Photographs from the Stanford University Museum of Art
16-January to 28-April
Stanford University Museum of Art |
1996 |
|
Desert
12-April to 19-May
South London Gallery, eight photographers, curated by Jim Harold |
1996 |
|
Perceptual Mirage: Photography Narratives of the Desert
West
22-June to 22-September
Whitney Museum of American Art |
1996 |
|
Frederick Sommer: Early and Late 1939 & 1995
15-November to 18-January
Pace/MacGill, LA, travels to Pace/MacGill, NY in 1997 |
1996 |
|
Certain Uncertainties
Bowdoin College Museum of Art |
1997 |
|
Frederick Sommer: Early and Late 1939 & 1995
27-February to 5-April
Pace/MacGill Gallery, NY |
1998 |
|
Picturing Creativity
3-April to 31-May
Bowdoin College Museum of Art |
1998 |
|
Photography at Princeton:
Celebrating 25 Years of Collecting
and Teaching the History of Photography
3-October to 3-January
The Art Museum, Princeton University |
1999 |
|
Transmutation: Silver Prints
2-February to 14-March
Bowdoin College Museum of Art
With Callahan, Cunningham, Gowin, Kertesz & Man Ray |
1999 |
|
Radical Past: Contemporary Art and Music in Pasadena,
1960-1974
7-February to 11-April
Norton Simon Museum |
1999 |
|
Frederick Sommer: Photographs & Collages
31-March to 20-June
Baltimore Museum of Art |
1999 |
|
Photographs from the Collection
25-April to 5-July
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. |
1999 |
|
An Eclectic Focus: Photographs from the Vernon Collection
26-June to 5-September
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Travels to Cologne, Germany & Jerusalem. |
1999 |
|
Frederick Sommer: Paintings, Photographs, Drawings
28-October to 27-November
Pace/MacGill Gallery, NY |
2000 |
|
Frederick Sommer: Anatomies
4-July to 20-August
Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles (France), Curator
Paula Aisemberg, informal commentary by Naomi Lyons in the amphitheater
after the slide presentation “Frederick Sommer: Solitude in Arizona.”
|
2001 |
|
Double Vision: Photographs from the Strauss Collection
30-January to 11-March
University Art Museum, California State Univ., Long Beach |
2002 |
|
Taken by Design: Photographs from the Institute of Design,
1937-1971
2-March to 12-May |
2002 |
|
The Art of Frederick Sommer
4-October to 2-November
Yavapai Community College, Prescott, Arizona |
2002 |
|
Retrospectable: Photography Gallery 7th Floor
16-November to 28-February
Denver Art Museum |
2002 |
|
Western Landscape
Utah Museum of Art |
2003 |
|
Recent Acquisitions: Modern and Contemporary Art
8-June to 3-August
Snite Museum of Art |
2003 |
|
The Discerning Eye: Southern California Collects
7-September to 4-January
Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego |
2003 |
|
Emmet Gowin: Changing the Earth
18-October to 3-January
Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
During the exhibit of Gowin’s work approximately five images of Sommer’s
were put up along with Callahan's to show the mentor relationship the two
artists shared with Emmet Gowin. |
2004 |
|
Photographer's of Genius
16-March to 25-July
Getty Museum |
2004 |
|
In the Center of Things: A Tribute to Harold Jones
3-April to 18-July
Center for Creative Photography |
2004 |
|
Frederick Sommer: photographs and musical scores
10-April to 15-May
Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica |
2004 |
|
Visionary Anatomies
15-September, October 21 and November 18
Keck Center, Washington D.C
& at NAS Building January through May, 2005.
Two collages in a show of 18 works by 11 artists. |
2005 |
|
Each of the exhibits in 2005 were uniquely
formed exhibitions (not a traveling show) that reflect the interests of the
curator and most were single-artist presentations.
Frederick Sommer: Illusions and Distortions
Victoria & Albert Museum
20-January to 3-April
Consent to Gravity
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)
28-January to 22-May
One review of the exhibition by Bill Rodriguez at
the Providence Phoenix
March 11-17 issue.
Frederick Sommer: A Centennial Tribute
The J. Paul Getty Museum, California
10-May to 4-September
A display of 37 photographs, including very rare photographs dating from c.1935,
before Sommer took up the 8x10 camera.
A great webpage,
"Preview Art" for the Sommer
show at the Getty worth looking at and listening to.
Several
objects and backgrounds that were used in creating the photographs are included
in the exhibition.
The Art of Frederick Sommer: Photography, Drawing, Collage - A Centennial
Celebration
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
14-May to 31-July
Frederick Sommer: Collages
Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica
21-May to 25-June
Frederick Sommer at 100
Pace/MacGill Gallery, NYC
1-September to 1-October
A review of the show appeared in the "Art in Review" section of the
New York Times Friday, September 9, 2005, by Ken Johnson.
Allegorical Constellations:
Works on Paper by Frederick Sommer
University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque
6-September to 20-November
A mix of work from public and private collections plus pieces
from the Sommer Foundation and is a really beautiful show of the full variety of
Sommer's work, including unique musical scores.
The Terrain of Seeing
Etherton Gallery
September 6 - November 5
Tucson, Arizona, with Mark Klett and Michael
Berman. Review of the show appeared in the the
Tucson Weekly September 15 edition, by Margaret Regan.
Etherton Archive of the show.
The Photographs of Frederick Sommer:
a centennial tribute
Snite Museum of Art at
Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana
September 11 - November 27, 2005
Frederick Sommer Drawings and Photographs 1938-1950
Faggionato Fine Arts: 42 E. 76th St. 4th Fl., NYC
November 4 – December 22, extended to January 21
Faggionato draws from a private collection of 24 drawings and 11
photographs, originally acquired from the estate of the well-known Parisian
publisher Christian Zervos. This collection allows a rare view of the artist
making parallel progress in two distinct image languages – photography and drawing.
The
Museum
Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Nützlich, süß, museal. Das fotografierte Tier
October 22, 2005 - January 15, 2006,
included Sommer's Jack Rabbit, 1939.
See also
Current Info
|
2006 |
|
Fresh Eyes: Emerging Photographic Talent of the West
Phippen Museum of Western Art, Prescott, AZ
January 14 - April 15, 2006
Faggionato Fine Art, London
June 8
- August 25, 2006
Whitney exhibition
Full House June 28 - October 8,
2006 (staggered closing dated), includes "Horse, 1945"
Wheaton College, Massachusetts hosted
'Consent to Gravity' September 15, 2006.
Intersections: Atlanta Collects Photography
at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta through
January 7, 2007 and includes "Coyotes, 1945" and "Arizona Landscape,
1943" by Sommer
University of Delaware, Rhode
Island, is hosting
'Visionary Anatomies' from September 19
- December 10, 2006.
"Intersections: Atlanta Collects Photography" at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta through
January 7, 2007 and includes "Coyotes, 1945" and "Arizona Landscape,
1943" by Sommer
Norton Simon Museum
presents "The Collectible Moment" through
February 26, 2007 which includes 13 vintage prints (smoke on glass, paint on cellophane
and out of focus nudes) given by Sommer at the conclusion of his exhibit there
in 1965, at the then Pasadena Art Museum under Walter Hopps' direction...Several reviews of the show have been posted online -
Review
1;
Review 2: |
2007 |
|
Visionary Anatomies continues to tour and includes two
collages by Sommer: The Art League of Long Island, Dix Hill, NY, April 7
- June 17, 2007; Art Museum of Western
Virginia, August 8, 2007 - October 28, 2007
The Modern West: American Landscapes,
1890-1950 includes two "Horse, 1945" and an "Arizona Landscape" (a rare
version). Exhibit opened at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and traveled to
LACMA (March
4 - June 3, 2007)
At
MOMA in NYC, the Edward Steichen Photography
Gallery, 3rd floor, features ongoing exhibitions from the collection. An
"Arizona Landscape, 1943" is included in the current installation through July
16, 2007.
Pace/MacGill includes three Frederick Sommer
landscapes in the summer show "Hot + Bothered" (July 11-August 24, 2007).
Getty current exhibitions
"In Focus: the nude" October 9, 2007 - February 23, 2008...includes
Sommer.
|
2008 |
|
Frederick Sommer January 22, 2008 - April 12, 2008. Includes photographs, scores
and collage. Symposium on Sunday, February 17, 2008 with Naomi
Lyons
(FFSF trustee) and Julian Cox (curator, High Museum, Atlanta).
Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Holllins University
Special Event APRIL 12 --
Hollins Photography Festival -- with Holly
Roberts, Lori Nix, and Christa Bowden
"Presumed Innocence: Photographic Perspectives of Children" at the
Cordova Museum from February 2 - April 27, 2008, includes a print of Livia, 1948 along with a notable selection of photographers.
Yale University Art Gallery "From Any Angle: Photographs from
the Collection of Doris Bry" May 23 - September 7, 2008
includes an early landscape by Frederick Sommer.
Our thanks to Sarah Stolfa and Ash Anderson for their excellent correspondence
on this project.
Haunch of Venison, New York includes 'Sumare' by
Sommer in "Abstract Expressionism - A World Elsewhere" organized by David Anfam
September 12 to November 21, 2008
|
2009 |
|
January 31 - May 13, 2009, extended Aug. 9, 2009
Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind and Frederick Sommer
Scottsdale Museum of Art: details at
SMOCA.
A significant group of images by Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind and Frederick
Sommer will be shown at
Scottsdale Museum of Art
Exhibition dates and details at
SMOCA.
Accompanying publication:
Radius Press Book description
REVIEW Feb. 15, 2008 -
Arizona Republic
REVIEW Feb. 28, 2008 -
The Republic
The February 19, Gallery talk with Claire
Carter, Naomi Lyons and Jeremy Cox was recorded available
here
~1 hour .wav
July 16, Claire Carter, "Lineage: tracing
generations of American Photography" Stage 2 theater at SMOCA
August 28 (reception) - September 25, 2009
"Sommer School : Art Education and Frederick Sommer" at
Prescott College Art Gallery, Sam Hill Warehouse (Tues - Sat. 11-3).
Exhibition included over 40 works dating from 1935-1995 in the media of photography,
drawing, collage and painting. Wall texts and jpeg
illustrations at Prescott College can be download
here
PC
press release
PC
Video press release, Daily Courier
Related ADDITIONAL EVENTS:
GALLERY 'Insights into Sommer' with Naomi Lyons
Friday, September 25, 6pm. A 45-60 minute gallery visit with Naomi Lyons who
worked with Sommer for 13 years. She is able to speak broadly about the
work presented, Sommer's ideas and field questions that may be posed.
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Frederick Sommer : Photographs
October 3, 2009 - January 3, 2010,
Press Release Sommer :
Press Release Exhibitions
Additional postings: Art Daily
Additional postings: Art Knowledge
Additional postings: Unsung
Additional postings: An Elegant Little Show
"Frederick Sommer (1905-1999) crafted a body of
art inflected by Surrealist ideas and distinguished by his meticulous love for
the art of photographic printing, his broad knowledge of art history, and a keen
sense of how the parts of a picture come together to produce meaning. This
exhibition surveys five decades of his photography, including disorienting
compositions such as “Arizona Landscape” (1943), a horizon-less image that only
gradually resolves its components into a desolate desert scene, and equally
bewildering subjects such as “Max Ernst” (1946), an exhibition highlight, in
which Sommer experimented with layered negatives, superimposing an image of a
rock onto a portrait of his friend Ernst, the pioneering Dada and Surrealist
artist, to create the illusion of a human morphing into rock.
The first exhibition of Sommer’s work in Philadelphia since
1968, Frederick Sommer Photographs presents some 40 images spanning the artist’s
career, along with a small number of drawings and collages. Included is a rare
suite of macabre yet poignant photographs the artist made in 1939 using chicken
parts collected from his butcher.
Curator: Peter Barberie, Curator of Photographs, with Julia
Dolan, The Horace W. Goldsmith Curatorial Fellow in Photography,
Location: The Alfred Stieglitz Center Gallery"
University of Oklahoma Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
The Creative Eye: Selections from the Carol Beesley Collection of Photographs, in Honor of Michael
Hennagin
November 7, 2009 - January 3, 2010
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
Look Again: A Selection from the Permanent Collection
August 15, 2009 - January 10, 2010 includes work by Sommer.
Phoenix Art Museum
Face to Face : 150 Years of Photographic Portraits
September 19, 2009 - January 10, 2010 includes work by Sommer.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
'Hide and Seek: Picturing Childhood'
September 26, 2009 - February 21, 2010
includes "Livia, 1948" by Sommer -
Additional Publicity
Additional Publicity II
Princeton University Art Museum will have an exhibit (honoring)
Emmet Gowin : A Collective Portrait which will include a Frederick Sommer,
along with other mentors work, Gowin's work and that of 20 students from
throughout Gowin's 35 years at Princeton. October 24, 2009 - February 21, 2010
Review : Light and Shadow Play
Review : Philadelphia Inquirer
|
2010 |
|
See Current Info page for exhibitions up right now
Mills College Art Museum
"In Focus: Photography from the Mills College Art Museum Collection,"
January 20 - March 14, 2010
Syracuse University Art Galleries,
"At the Crossroads of American Photography:
Callahan, Siskind, Sommer"
January 24 - March 17
Additional Publicity
February 19, 2009, Gallery talk with Claire Carter, Naomi Lyons
and Jeremy Cox during the
"Callahan, Siskind, Sommer" exhibition at
SMOCA, available
here ~1 hour .wav
NYC, MOMA
has reinstalled the Edward Steichen Photography Galleries on the third floor and
included Sommer's "Glass, 1943" as
part of the exhibit
(through March 22, 2010).
Bruce Silverstein Gallery
"Frederick Sommer:
Drawing, Photography, Painting, Collage"
February 6 - March 20
Art News review
Fugitive Vision review
New Yorker review
'Chelsea' towards bottom.
"FREDERICK SOMMER...this sprawling, museum-quality survey shows how
closely his photography, drawing, painting, and collage work were linked..."
Brooklyn Rail review
DLK Blog review 3 stars (highest) "...first
can't miss show of 2010, as it take what we know about one of the masters of the
medium and explodes it outward..."
A 6mb download of the catalog can be found
by clicking
PDF here
RISD Museum of Art
"Presence through Process"
From RISD's announcement, "'The desire to depict the perceptual and physical
experience of the human body, rather than merely its appearance, can serve as a
catalyst for photographic experimentation. This exhibit presents works by
Emmet Gowin, Vik Muniz, Frederick Sommer, Lesley Dill, and other artists
exploring the poetics and politics of the human figure. Featured is a
cross-section of photographic processes from the latter half of the 20th
century, from camera manipulation to more direct registers of presence."
January 15 - June 20, 2010
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Surface Tension: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection
September 15, 2009 – June 13, 2010
A paint on cellophane by Sommer is included
At the
Art Institute of Chicago
"Works by Frederick Sommer"
August 7 - October 10, 2010
At the
Phoenix Art Museum
"Creative Continuum : The History of the Center for Creative Photography"
July 24 - November 28, 2010
Review - AZ Republic
Review - East Valley Tribune
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (
The Clark),
December 14, 2010, Robin Kelsey, "visiting professor of Art History in the Williams
College Graduate Program in Art History, presented the lecture
"War Work: The Photography of Frederick Sommer, 1938-1945"
At the
Getty Museum
"In Focus: Still Life"
September 14, 2010 - January 23, 2011
Museum of Modern Art, NYC
"Abstract Expressionist New York"
October 3, 2010 - April 25, 2011
Includes Sommer's "Sumare"
Heads Up Announcement - Lindsay Pollock
|
2011 |
|
Bruce Silverstein Gallery
Frederick Sommer
"Choice and chance structure Art and Nature"
February 24 - April 2, 2011
City Arts - review
DLK - review
|
2012 |
|
Tate, Britain
January 13, 2012
Symposium "Landscape and Eschatology" with a presentation by John Timberlake on
Frederick Sommer.
Museum of Modern Art, NYC
May 13, 2011 - February 2012
Includes Sommer's "Smoke on Cellophane 5, 1961" as part of the current
photography exhibit.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
"Modernist Photography: 1910 - 1950"
July 30, 2011 - April 1, 2012
Includes Sommer, Sheeler, Weston, Siskind, Levitt.
Two reviews are posted at MFA, Boston's site.
|
2013 |
|
A World of Bonds: Frederick Sommer's Photography and Friendships
July 16 - August 4, 2013 at the National Gallery of Art with 27 photographs, prints, collages and drawings. NGA Site
"Shifting Sands: the Beach and the Desert in 20th-Century Photographs" through October 13, 2013
Stanford - Cantor Arts Center
"Real/Surreal" at the Akron Art Museum, July 20 - November 3, 2013
Akron Art Museum
|
2014 |
|
Under the Surface: Surrealist Photography Bowdoin College Museum of Art February 27 - June 1, 2014 and related talk with Robin Kelsey on February 28, 2014.
|
2015 |
|
Refer to Current Events for exhibitions as we become aware of them in 2015.
|
|
|
|
If your museum has archive files related to a show in which Frederick Sommer
was included we would appreciate that information.
Last revisions to dates - March 2015