PULLMAN, Wash. – The Washington State University Museum of Art will present two photographic exhibitions which feature some of the most famous images in history and – with a recent discovery – some of the most private with Through the Lens: An American Century – Corbis & Vivian Maier, which opens Jan. 12 and runs through April 3.
The exhibit will also feature works from emerging student photographers from across the country, in which students use their cameras as a vehicle to create portraits of our nuanced communities while simultaneously posing the question, “What constitutes a lasting and meaningful image?”
Corbis: From the Collection of Tony and Leslie Rojas
Since its founding, Corbis has collected hundreds of thousands of photographs that
represent great and small moments throughout history. This exhibition will showcase a selection of 32 iconic photographs through times of war or peace, the first flight at Kitty Hawk and the moon landing, and the quest for civil rights. Each picture stands as a defining visual moment within a signature event or personality in the 20th century. All works come to us from the Tony and Leslie Rojas Collection of Photography.
Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier was born in 1926 and spent most of a quiet anonymous life in Chicago. She died in 2009 and left no heirs or family. Unbeknownst to anyone, she did however leave a legacy of brilliant “street photography:” a hundred thousand negatives, thousands of rolls of undeveloped film, in color and black and white, and one hundred and fifty 8-mm. and 16-mm. films. The images exhibited represent a selection of the photographs that were discovered after her death.
A public reception for the exhibition will be held Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. in the Museum of Art/WSU gallery with a presentation, “What makes a lasting image”, given by photography professor Dennis DeHart. An additional public reception will be held in the same location at 6 pm Feb. 12, with a presentation by Art Historian Marianne Kinkel, which will be followed by a screening of the documentary Finding Vivian Maier at 7 pm in the CUB Auditorium. Admission to the museum is free.
Funding for this exhibition is provided by Tony & Leslie Rojas and Members of the Museum of Art. The Museum of Art is located on Wilson Road across from Martin Stadium in the Fine Arts Center on the WSU Pullman campus. Gallery hours are Monday – Saturday, 10 am. – 4 pm., open until 7 pm on Thursdays and closed on Sundays. For more information please contact the museum at 509-335-1910 or visit online at http://museum.wsu.edu.
Contact:
Debby Stinson, Museum of Art/WSU, 509-335-6282, debby_stinson@wsu.edu
Anna-Maria Shannon, Museum of Art/WSU, 509-335-6140, annamshannon@wsu.edu