id: 154856
accession number: 1989.433
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1989.433
updated: 2025-12-07 02:44:11.436000
Inside Mount St. Helens Crater, Base of Lava Dome on the Left, 1983. Frank Gohlke (American, 1942-). Gelatin silver print; image: 45.3 x 55.9 cm (17 13/16 x 22 in.); paper: 50.6 x 60.7 cm (19 15/16 x 23 7/8 in.); matted: 61 x 71.1 cm (24 x 28 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Museum members in 1989, 1989.433
title: Inside Mount St. Helens Crater, Base of Lava Dome on the Left
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1983
creation date earliest: 1983
creation date latest: 1983
current location:
creditline: Gift of Museum members in 1989
copyright:
---
culture: America
technique: gelatin silver print
department: Photography
collection: PH - American 1951-Present
type: Photograph
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
---
CREATORS
* Frank Gohlke (American, 1942-) - artist
Frank Gohlke American, 1942-
Frank William Gohlke thinks of the landscape as "human artifact," examining in his photographs the complex interplay between nature and the built environment. From his early black-and-white images of midwestern grain elevators to his later, mural-sized color works, Gohlke has sought to convey a sense of space as presence, rather than absence. He uses man-made structures as grounding points for the eye against an expansive, otherwise incomprehensible horizon. With meditative constancy and a penchant for the poetic, Gohlke sees photography as a means for "losing himself" so that he may paradoxically discover a vision of the world uniquely his own. His work has been included in several significant exhibitions, including New Topographics (George Eastman House, Rochester, 1975) and John Szarkowski's Photography Until Now (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1989).
Gohlke (born in Wichita Falls, Texas) attended Davidson College in North Carolina (1960-63) and the University of Texas, Austin (B.A. in English, 1964), pursuing English literature at Yale University (M.A. 1967). Over the next two years he met Walker Evans -- a decided influence -- and studied photography with Paul Caponigro. Gohlke then began teaching, first at Middlebury College in Vermont (1968-71), where he established the school's first photography program. He has also taught at the Blake Schools (1973-75) and the University of Minnesota Extension, Minneapolis (1975-79), Colorado College (1977-81), Carleton College (1980), Yale University Graduate School (1981), and the Massachusetts College of Art (1989-94).
His honors include a Seagram Bicentennial Courthouse Project Award (1975) and fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Council (1973), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1975, 1984), the National Endowment for the Arts (1977, 1987), and the Bush Foundation (1979), as well as a McKnight Foundation/Film in the Cities Photographic Fellowship (1983). Gohlke lives in Ashland, Massachusetts. A.W.
---
measurements: Image: 45.3 x 55.9 cm (17 13/16 x 22 in.); Paper: 50.6 x 60.7 cm (19 15/16 x 23 7/8 in.); Matted: 61 x 71.1 cm (24 x 28 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work: edition of 30
support materials:
inscriptions:
inscription: Written in black ink on recto: "Inside Mount St. Helens / Crater, base of lava dome on the left - 1983"; on verso: "6"; "Frank Gohlke [signed] 1986 / P983-21-1"
translation:
remark:
---
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Contemporary American Photographers
opening date: 1992-11-18T05:00:00
Contemporary American Photographers. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 18, 1992-January 3, 1993).
title: American Vesuvius: The Aftermath of Mount St. Helens by Frank Gohlke and Emmet Gowin
opening date: 2013-01-13T00:00:00
American Vesuvius: The Aftermath of Mount St. Helens by Frank Gohlke and Emmet Gowin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 13-May 12, 2013).
---
LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
---
PROVENANCE
---
fun fact:
digital description:
wall description:
---
RELATED WORKS
---
CITATIONS
Hinson, Tom E. "Contemporary American Photographs: An Exhibition." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 9 (1992): 306-51.
page number: p. 348, no. 28, repr. p. 333
url: www.jstor.org/stable/25161375
E. H. T. "The Year in Review: Selections 1989." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 2 (1990): 38-78.
page number: p. 70, no. 93
url: www.jstor.org/stable/25160106
Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
page number: Reproduced: P. 187
url:
---
IMAGES