Masters of American Photography to Open at Massillon Museum

Tuesday  |  February 16, 2016  |  10:15 AM

News Release:  Masters of American Photography to Open at Massillon Museum

THe Massillon Museum's main gallery will host two exhibitions featuring some of the most famous photographers and images in the history of American photography.  One is a traveling exhibition; the other originates in the Massillon Museum's own outstanding permanent collection.

Both will open at the Massillon Museum on Saturday, March 5, with a free and public reception from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. The exhibitions will continue through Sunday, May 15. 

Masters of American Photography, the traveling exhibition, was curated by the Reading Public Museum in Reading Pennsylvania, with images from its permanent collection that elegantly represent the history of photography in the 20th century.

Iconic images by Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke White, and others will be on display. Many of these are vintage prints (made by the photographer very close to the time the negative was made) or late prints (made by the photographer or assistant years later).

Rachael Arauz, Ph.D., independent curator for this exhibition, said, “This carefully chosen collection features an impressive range of images from some of the most important artists in the history of the medium.”

The Massillon Museum’s executive director, Alexandra Nicholis Coon, said, “This beautiful exhibition complements our own exemplary permanent collection of more than 60,000 photographs. It will offer the residents of our region an opportunity to see vintage and late prints of internationally renowned photographers and the images that made them famous.”

The complementary exhibition, Massillon's Masters: Highlights from the Fine Art Photography Collection, also in the main gallery, will include outstanding examples from the Massillon Museum's fine art photography collection.  

"The Massillon's Masters: Highlights from the Fine Art Photography Collection exhibition will feature works by Nell Dorr, Belle Johnson, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Tom Baril, Ernest H. Brooks II, Dorothy Kerper Monnelly, William L. Bennett, Henry Clay Fleming, and Tamara Lischka, to create a dialogue with the works displayed in the Masters of American Photography exhibit," said Massillon Museum Curator Heather Haden. "In fact, many of the photographers in the Massillon Museum collection exhibited alongside some of the Masters of American Photography artists in the 1955 The Family of Man exhibit at MOMA [Museum of Modern Art, New York City]."

Visitors to the photography exhibitions at the Massillon Museum will also be able to see Fashion Outlaws, It’s Been Awhile, Paul Brown and Racial Integration in Ohio Football, Growing Season (through April 10), Las Mariposas: The Mirabal Sisters, and The Immel Circus.

The Massillon Museum receives operating support from the Ohio Arts Council and ArtsinStark.

The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon. Free parking is available on adjacent streets and in nearby city lots. For more information, call 330.833.4061 or visit www.massillonmuseum.org. A visit to the Massillon Museum is always free.