New hammer exhibit captures photography’s shift from the conceptual to the artistic

Photography has been used to document and display since its
invention, but it took the innovative minds of the 1960s and 1970s
to shift the practice of taking photos into a full-fledged artistic
movement.

These are the decades covered by “The Last Picture
Show,” an exhibition of artistic photography from 1960 to
1982 opening at the UCLA Hammer Museum on Feb. 8. The show will
feature 57 mostly American and European artists who have influenced
artistic photography with their modern eye.

Hammer Museum curator Russell Ferguson said the show chronicles
a shift in the history of photography, which was primarily used to
document temporary acts. “Photography was primarily
conceptual before this period,” Ferguson said. “The
show marks the return of the pictures generation and brings the
focus back to imaging.”

Douglas Fogle, curator of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis,
said he wanted a mixture of well-known artists and more obscure
names. “I was trying to distill who was the most
representative overall,” he said.

Included as some of the most famous names of the ’70s are
artists like Andy Warhol, whose odd twists on traditional
photo-booth pictures and self-portraits preceded some of his work
in popular culture.

Although the show mainly features artists from Europe and North
America, Fogle was careful to note that these were global trends
and were not restricted to western art movements.

Lesser-known names, such as Indian artist Nasreen Mohamedi,
grace the compilation with shots of geometrical architecture, a
common theme throughout the show.

“Most of the artists in (the exhibit) are ones that most
people would recognize as being very influential,” said
Ferguson. Among these influential artists are UCLA’s James
Welling and Charles Ray, professors in the School of Arts and
Architecture. Welling experiments with diversions from typical
conceptions of composition in his early 1980s studio work.

Ray addresses the theme of living sculpture, often addressed by
the show’s other artists, in his photography from the 1970s,
which all portray his own body as an elemental aspect of space.
“Ray plays with a take off on minimalist sculpture,”
said Ferguson.

Artists like Welling and Ray played an important role in using
setups simply for the sake of photography. Until the early 1960s,
the dominant mode of photography was a street method which focused
on shooting an action in a decisive moment. “The rhetoric was
of “˜being the eye,'” said Ferguson. “A lot
of the art in this show is not interested in composition, but
information.”

Organized chronologically and thematically, the show focuses on
particular movements in history that have created important
conceptual statements throughout the time period like minimalism
and highly controversial practice of photo appropriation.

One of these themes is the focus on the use of language and text
in photography. Artist Bruce Nauman uses the figurative sayings in
literal images such as “eating my words” and
“feet of clay” to comment on the contrast of images and
language in everyday communication.

Ferguson feels that the art represented in the show reflects a
social change in the 1960s and 1970s culture. “We are looking
at an experimental moment in history,” said Ferguson.
“Artists were embracing expression and new art
forms.”

Both Ferguson and Fogle are hoping to draw enthusiastic
responses to the show from the L.A. community, since much of the
art was influenced by local culture.

“Most of the artists involved either live or have worked
in L.A.,” said Fogle, who feels that Los Angeles has a
uniquely creative artistic community that will likely be drawn to
this type of work.

“These are very high quality examples of extremely
important movements,” said Ferguson. “It’s
valuable to see them all together.”

“The Last Picture Show” is on display from Feb.
8 to May 9. Admission is free. Visit www.hammer.ucla.edu for more
information.