Ray K. Metzker / Composites: Philadelphia (Apertures) / 1965Ray K. Metzker
Composites: Philadelphia (Apertures)
1965

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Creator Name: Metzker, Ray K.
Creator Nationality: North American; American
Creator Role: Artist
Creator Dates/Places: 1931
Biography: Ray K. Metzker American, 1931-As a student of Arthur Siegel, Aaron Siskind, and Harry Callahan in Chicago at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, Ray Metzker was influenced by the spirit of photographic experimentation at the "New Bauhaus." Extending photography's formal vocabulary beyond description and into the realm of visual puzzles, Metzker is best known for his creative use of pattern, high tonal contrast, focus, print size, and composition. He first explored these issues in his single-image work of the 1950s, moving in the 1960s to make multiframe assemblages that juxtaposed highly contrasted fragments of figures, objects, and architectural elements to create kinetic patterns and mosaic grids. Envisioning an entire roll of film as one negative, Metzker describes his Composites series as an explanation of "the potential of the black-and-white still photograph to deal with the complexity of succession and simultaneity." Metzker resumed the single-image format in a series of NewMexican landscapes during the early 1970s, fusing high-contrast blocks created by buildings, leaves, and his own shadow with subjects rendered in the more traditional gradation of black-and-white tones. His Pictus Interruptus series of 1977 continued theplay of tone and perspective, wherein objects placed close to the lens appeared blurred, obscuring scenic backdrops views of Greece and Philadelphia. In 1989, with the assistance of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a residency from the La Napoule Foundation, Metzker photographed in the south of France for his series titled Sojourn. In this and his later series In Nature's Realm (1994), he continued to explore the photographic interplay of natural textures and forms. Born in Milwaukee,Metzker earned a B.A. in art from Beloit College (1953) and an M.S. in photography from the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology (1959). His work has been featured in one-person exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago (1959, 1985, 1991), the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1967), the Milwaukee Art Center (1970), the International Center of Photography, New York (1978), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1984), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1985), the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1985), the High Museum of Art, Atlanta (1986), George Eastman House, Rochester (1986), the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C (1986), and the Cleveland Museum of Art (1991). Metzker has received fellowships from theJohn Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1966, 1979) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1974, 1988), an award from La Napoule Foundation, France (1989), and a Bernheim Fellowship (1989). Metzker has taught photography at the Rhode Island School of Design (1977), the University of New Mexico (1970-72), Columbia College (1980), and the Philadelphia College of Art (1962-80). He lives in Philadelphia and Moab, Utah. A.W.
Gender: M
Creator Birth Place: Milwaukee, WI
Creator Name-CRT: Ray K. Metzker
Title: Composites: Philadelphia (Apertures)
Title Type: Primary
View: Full View
Creation Start Date: 1965
Creation End Date: 1965
Creation Date: 1965
Object Type: Photographs
Classification Term: Photography
Materials and Techniques: gelatin silver prints
Dimensions: Image: 36.5cm x 57.7cm
AMICA Contributor: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location: Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number: 1986.93
Credit Line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Rights: http://www.clemusart.com/museum/disclaim2.html
Context: Between 1964 and 1967, Ray Metzker produced a body of experimental work that explored serial imagery and the grid---concepts that also intrigued painters and sculptors of that time. A montage comprised of 240 individual photographs, this urban image abandons the conventional single-frame format for a new pictorial approach. Taken while looking out of or up at buildiings in Philadelphia, twelve separate 35mm negatives are repeated throughout the composite photograph. Sometimes turned or printed in reverse, each negative was contact-printed numerous times to present the viewer with multiple viewpoints. Through repetition, juxtaposition, and sequencing, Metzker suggests the multiplicity and vitality of city life.
AMICA ID: CMA_.1986.93
AMICA Library Year: 1998
Media Metadata Rights: Copyright, The Cleveland Museum of Art

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