Editor's note: Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center
for Visual Arts at Stanford University provided source material to Resource
Library Magazine for the following article or essay. If you have questions
or comments regarding the source material, please contact the Iris &
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The Photography of John
Gutmann: Culture Shock
Focusing on an outstanding group of 100 photographs selected by
the artist to exemplify more than a half century of work, The Photography
of John Gutmann: Culture Shock examines the achievement of this unique
and influential artist and considers his career in its historic context.
The exhibition surveys Gutmann's documentary work in Asia, Europe, and the
United States during the 1930s and '40s and includes classic images such
as Death Stalks the Fillmore (1934). Gutmann's photographs illustrate
his personal adaptation of surrealism. He turned from recording the odd
and the marvelous that presented itself to his gaze and began to experiment
with inventing and constructing images. (left: John Gutmann, Jitterbug,
New Orleans, 1937, Gelatin-silver print, The Capital Group Companies,
Inc.)
Born in Germany in 1905 and trained as a painter, Gutmann
took up photography in 1933 and supported himself as a photojournalist after
emigrating to the United States. A student of the German expressionist painter
Otto 
Mueller,
Gutmann brought to the task of documenting his new surroundings a sensibility
nurtured in the avant-garde circles of Berlin. He became fascinated by the
popular culture of the United States-"all this bad taste here which,
of course, I learned to love"-which he saw as evidence of "enormous
vitality." "I was seeing America with an outsider's eyes-the automobiles,
the speed, the freedom, the graffiti," he explained in a 1989 interview,
and his powerful images, which record "the almost bizarre, exotic qualities
of the country," established his reputation. Having settled in San
Francisco, he helped link the West Coast to European modernism, inspiring
later generations of photographers through his unique capacity to disclose
the ambiguities and oddities within the commonplace. (right: John
Gutmann, The Oracle, 1949, Gelatin-silver print, The Capital Group
Companies, Inc.)
The
fully illustrated catalogue accompanying the exhibition features an introduction
by Sandra S. Phillips, Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art. Phillips explores two primary themes suggested by this unique
selection of works from the Capitol Group collection. She compares Gutmann's
vision of American culture and the work of other photojournalists in such
popular magazines as Life and Look. She also discusses Gutmann's
artistic development, elucidating continuities between his images of the
'30s and '40s that document American vernacular culture and his personal
surrealism of the 1950s. (left: John Gutmann, Mobile, Alabama,
1937, Gelatin-silver print, The Capital Group Companies, Inc.)
All photographs are lent by The Capital Group Companies,
Inc. or The Capital Group Foundation. The Photography of John Gutmann:
Culture Shock is organized and circulated by the Iris & B. Gerald
Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. The exhibition has
been made possible, in part, by generous support from The Capital Group
Companies, Inc. and The Capital Group Foundation.
Read more articles and essays concerning this institutional
source by visiting the sub-index page for the Cantor
Arts Center in Resource Library Magazine
For further biographical information please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national
registry of historic artists.
rev. 12/23/10
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Library for thousands of articles and essays on American art.
Copyright 2010 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.
Focusing on an outstanding group of 100 photographs selected by
the artist to exemplify more than a half century of work, The Photography
of John Gutmann: Culture Shock examines the achievement of this unique
and influential artist and considers his career in its historic context.
The exhibition surveys Gutmann's documentary work in Asia, Europe, and the
United States during the 1930s and '40s and includes classic images such
as Death Stalks the Fillmore (1934). Gutmann's photographs illustrate
his personal adaptation of surrealism. He turned from recording the odd
and the marvelous that presented itself to his gaze and began to experiment
with inventing and constructing images. (left: John Gutmann, Jitterbug,
New Orleans, 1937, Gelatin-silver print, The Capital Group Companies,
Inc.)
