DeCordova Collects Photographs: Recent Acquisitions

September 14, 1996 – January 20, 1997

The DeCordova Museum’s photography collection has grown substantially in the last ten years through the generosity of collectors and artists. The Museum’s photography collection was initiated in 1980 with the purchase of fourteen works that had been included in an exhibition. Since that time, the photography collection has grown by two means, either by acquiring work from exhibitions or by receiving donations from the photographers or collectors. In keeping with the mission of the collections policy of the Museum, the photography collection provides for the documentation and appreciations of significant trends and artists who have made important contributions to the development of twentieth-century American art. Within this larger context emphasis is placed on surveying the contribution of artists in the New England region.

This particular selection of photographs displays the range and depth of DeCordova’s holdings. The eighty-one works, by twenty-eight photographers, include examples of a number of historical and contemporary images, ranging from a classic photograph of 1930s Americana by Walker Evans, to Nicholas Nixon’s recent studies of students at the Perkins School for the Blind. The scope of subject matter is wide and varied, including portraiture, landscape, studies of the architecture and /or people of a particular geographic location, still-life, abstraction, nature studies, and scientific experiments.

The Museum is indebted to the artists and collectors, particularly Arlette and Gus Kayafas, and Stephen L. Singer and Linda G. Singer, who have so generously donated work to the collection.

DeCordova Collects Photographs: Recent Acquisitions

Artists Represented in the Exhibition