id: 153410 accession number: 1986.93 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1986.93 updated: 2024-04-23 21:46:25.613000 Composites: Philadelphia (Apertures), 1965. Ray K. Metzker (American, 1931–2014). Gelatin silver prints; image: 36.5 x 57.7 cm (14 3/8 x 22 11/16 in.); matted: 71.1 x 81.3 cm (28 x 32 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1986.93 title: Composites: Philadelphia (Apertures) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1965 creation date earliest: 1965 creation date latest: 1965 current location: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: America, 20th century technique: gelatin silver prints department: Photography collection: PH - American 1951-Present type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Ray K. Metzker (American, 1931–2014) - artist 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 New Mexican 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 the play 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 the John 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. --- measurements: Image: 36.5 x 57.7 cm (14 3/8 x 22 11/16 in.); Matted: 71.1 x 81.3 cm (28 x 32 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review for 1986 opening date: 1987-02-04T05:00:00 Year in Review for 1986. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-March 15, 1987). title: Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 1996-11-24T05:00:00 Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997). title: The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-06-09T00:00:00 The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006). title: PROOF: Photography in the Era of the Contact Sheet opening date: 2020-02-07T05:00:00 PROOF: Photography in the Era of the Contact Sheet. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-November 29, 2020). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'CMA, February 4 - March 15, 1987: "Year in Review 1986," CMA Bulletin, 74 (February 1986), p. 65, no. 84, repr. p. 52.', 'opening_date': '1987-02-04T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA, July 10 - August 19, 1990: "The Camera," Classroom Level, no exhibition catalogue.', 'opening_date': '1990-07-10T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art," see Catalogue of Photography, pp. 54-55.', 'opening_date': '1997-02-02T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art"', 'opening_date': '2006-06-09T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 54-55; Reproduced: P. 235 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 10, December 1996 page number: Mentioned & reproduced: p. 6 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMM1996-10/page/6 --- IMAGES