By Suzanne Révy
John Szarkowski, famed Director of the Photography Department at the Museum of Modern Art from 1962 to 1991, famously asked of the photograph, “is it a mirror, reflecting the portrait of the artist who made it, or a window through which we might better know the world?” By layering exterior views over interior spaces, the photographer Abelardo Morell seems to be asking a similar metaphoric question. His exhibition Projecting Italy, currently on view at the Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM), honors the twentieth anniversary of the Center for Italian Culture at Fitchburg State University. FAM also presents Joyride, Cars in American Art from the Terry and Eva Herndon Collection which includes a selection of photographs that memorably drive visitors through a history of both photography and the automobile. Projecting Italy will be on view through January 2nd, 2022 and Joyride will be on view through January 9th, 2022. TONIGHT! The Fitchburg Art Museum is planning a Zoom talk with Abelardo Morell from 7 to 8:30pm.
“Projecting Italy” by Abelardo Morell (American, b. Cuba 1948) at the Fitchburg Art Museum. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)
Morell is renowned for employing the camera obscura technique, wherein all light is blocked from a room with the exception of one small pinhole which allows the outdoor scene to be projected upside down and backwards onto the room’s opposite wall. This optical phenomena was first described in writing by a Chinese philosopher in 400 BC and is the physical basis for all cameras. Rendering the ancient streets and structures of Italy with the camera obscura endows Morell’s pictures with a striking sense of lived history. Furniture, books, paintings and wall coverings are transformed by ephemeral outdoor scenes radiating from the pinhole. Viewers might wonder, for example, who read those books or wandered among the tree-lined foot paths and urban plazas projected onto the wall? Morell revels in the rich tapestries, art and architecture of this vibrant country and we are invited into his darkened rooms with expansive prints that are presented with no glazing, which creates an immersive visual experience.
“Camera Obscura: View of the Landscape Outside Florence in Room with Books” by Abelardo Morell (American, b. Cuba 1948)
“Camera Obscura: View of Villa Entrance in Blue Gallery, Villa la Pietra” by Abelardo Morell (American b. Cuba, 2948) from the exhibition Projecting Italy, courtesy of the artist and the Fitchburg Art Museum.
Among the works are several examples made with Morell’s tent camera; in this case, he constructs a dark tent with a pinhole at the top, a prism to bend the light and a camera inside the tent to make an exposure. In these, the image is projected onto the ground. Morell’s classic postcard view of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiori in Florence is marred by a weed that seems to burst with energy above the over seven hundred year-old dome. In another, the view of rooftops from Rome’s Spanish Academy is rained upon with water splattered from a garden hose in the blue sky that is projected onto a red brick surface. Morell’s complex views possess dualities between the classic and the contemporary, opening a window into enchanting realms by combining an intricate technique with a simple trick of light.
“Projecting Italy” by Abelardo Morell (American, b. Cuba 1948) at the Fitchburg Art Museum. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)
(Feature Image) “Camera Obscura: View of Florence Duomo in Tuscany President’s Office in Palazzo Strozzi” by Abe Morell (American, b. Cuba 1948) from the exhibit Projecting Italy, courtesy of the artist and the Fitchburg Art Museum.
“Le Grand Prix ACF” by 1913, by Jacques Lartigue (French, 1984-1986) gelatin silver print, 16” x 20”. Courtesy of Terry and Eva Herndon and the Fitchburg Art Museum.
While you are at FAM, be sure to visit the long hallway featuring a selection of photographs from Joyride, Cars in American Art from the Terry and Eva Herndon Collection. Opening with pictures from the earliest years of the twentieth century, the collection meanders through the decades, touring the vast landscape that created our car culture. Jacques Lartigue’s dynamic black and white Grand Prix, ACF from 1913 gives way to migrants whose overloaded cars carried their fortunes through the economic hardships of the Great Depression and eventually leads to Meridel Rubenstein’s color family portrait with a low rider sedan from the era in the ’70’s. Through the decades, auto design became ever more obsessed with sleek sculptural lines and the selection and sequence here weaves the history of the automobile with the material history of photography. Well worth the drive to Fitchburg.
From the exhibit “Joyride, Cars in American Art from the Terry and Eva Herndon Collection” installation view of Depression era gelatin silver prints by Arthur Rothstein, Dorothea Lange, Theordor Jung, Marion Post Wolcott and Ben Shahn. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)
“Paul, Annabelle, & Paul Medina, Chimayo 68 Chevy Impala” 1980 by Meridel Rubenstein (American b. 1948) ektacolor photograph, 24” x 28”. Courtesy of Terry and Eva Herndon and the Fitchburg Art Museum.
For more information and to register for this evening’s talk with Abelardo Morell, go to: https://fitchburgartmuseum.org
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