By Suzanne Révy and Elin Spring
Art and science are two sides of the same coin. The scientist observes the natural world in order to understand its underlying machinations while the artist uses form, color and voice to interpret nature and our place in it. Paintings, sculptures, relics and specimens have been categorized and displayed in a variety of repositories for eons. One way or another, we all seem drawn to decipher the universe. For over five decades, Rosamond Purcell has doggedly photographed the curious collections from numerous natural history museums, driven by her impulse for assembly and study. A vast selection of her pictures is currently on view in Rosamond Purcell: Nature Stands Aside at the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, MA through December 31st, 2022.
In sharp contrast to Rosamond Purcell’s opus on the Addison’s the second floor, Harry Benson: Four Stories in the first floor galleries are piercing bullet points, depicting momentous events with vigor and empathy during one of the most turbulent periods in modern America . On view through January 29th, 2023.
(Feature Image) “Mermaid #1″ By Rosamond Purcell, 1970, Polaroid, 4 1/2″x5 1/2” courtesy of the artist and the Addison Gallery of American Art.
Like a scientist, Rosamond Purcell is inquisitive with a sense of play. Her early Polaroids from the 1970’s are layered or the surface is manipulated, resulting in images that quietly whisper to viewers to step in and look closely. She experimented with double exposures, transfers and collage in a series of black and white Polaroid portraits that are alternately whimsical or evocative.
“Jungle Fowl, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University” by © Rosamond Purcell, c. 1986, courtesy of the artist and the Addison Gallery of American Art. © Rosamond Purcell.
Taxonomists have described more than a million species of organisms. The vast majority of them are known to few if any specialists. A handful have distinguished themselves by their centrality to our lives. The placid, but very dead look of these Indian jungle fowl may not be inappropriate in human terms since they are direct ancestors of all domestic chickens. We have recruited them for our purposes in ways beyond the utility of the table. The wild jungle cock crows at sunset, and no one knows how we reset their descendants as alarm clocks. ~Stephen Jay Gould.
“Zebra, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden” by Rosamond Purcell, 1985. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)
Contrary to what most Western schoolchildren learn, zebras seem to be black animals with white stripes- as most African people have long believed- an interesting commentary on cultural bias. ~Stephen Jay Gould.
Later, Purcell moved away from live portraiture and turned her attention to inanimate objects, probing the collections of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and similar institutions in Europe and Russia. Her interest in how items were categorized and labeled led her to collaborate with renowned biologist Stephen Jay Gould in a series of still-life pictures accompanied by his written insights. Gould expounds on how human influence re-set the time that roosters crow from sunset to sunrise and the cultural implications our assumption that zebras are white, when they are actually black with white stripes.
“Wall” by Rosamond Purcell, 1990’s, mixed media installation, courtesy of the artist and the Addison Gallery of American Art. © Rosamond Purcell.
Mixed Media installation view of Rosamond Purcell: Nature Stands Aside (Photo by Suzanne Révy)
“Skeleton of a Child with Hydrocephalus, Universeitsmuseum, Utrecht” by Rosamond Purcell, 1995, courtesy of the artist and the Addison Gallery of American Art. © Rosamond Purcell.
Purcell’s passion for photographing collections extends well beyond institutions. She has scrutinized vernacular collections such as the one amassed by William Buckminster in Owl’s Head, Maine where she both photographed and gathered discarded objects in order to construct sculptural “ready-mades.” Throughout the exhibit are several installations including an impressive “Wall” of detritus from Buckminster’s junkyard, several three-dimensional collages made with window frames, and a small cabinet with drawers bursting with organic fragments. Above it, a photograph featuring a collection of teeth.
“Great Egret, Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology, Camarillo, CA” by Rosamond Purcell, 2007-8, courtesy of the artist and the Addison Gallery of American Art. © Rosamond Purcell.
“Monkey with Ball” by Rosamond Purcell, 1985, courtesy of the artist and the Addison Gallery of American Art. © Rosamond Purcell.
Harry Benson, J.F.K. Paris, 1961, archival pigment print, 24 x 30 inches, courtesy of the artist and Gigi Benson. © Harry Benson
Many photojournalists find themselves in the right place at the right time but it is an exceptional one who can capture these moments with unerring skill and empathy. Harry Benson is one of those rare ones. From his pensive 1961 cameo of President John F Kennedy amidst an outdoor crowd to his harrowing captures of the frenzied aftermath of Robert F Kennedy’s assassination as he campaigned for the Presidential nomination in June of 1968, Benson’s quick and discerning eye strikes with penetrating sensitivity.
Harry Benson, Arriving New York Off the Plane, February 7, 1964, archival pigment print, 24 x 30 inches, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, gift of Eileen and Jonathan Otto (PA 1975), 2020.2. © Harry Benson
Harry Benson, Pillow Fight, Paris, 1964, gelatin silver print, 44 x 44 inches, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, gift of Eileen and Jonathan Otto (PA 1975), 2020.9. © Harry Benson
Benson is drawn to emotion like a moth to flame, plumbing the full spectrum of human pathos. Dropped into a chaotic event, he pinpoints the significance of the moment through the raw and relatable sentiments of his subjects. The utter exhilaration of the Beatles arrival in New York City on February 7th, 1964 and their boyish camaraderie behind the scenes fed the flames of Beatlemania in the US. Benson’s acute intuition is equally evident in his affecting portrait of Berlin’s Mayor Willy Brandt, whose solemn acquiescence is palpable as Russian troops surround his city to construct the Berlin Wall on August 13th, 1961.
Harry Benson, Willy Brandt Berlin Wall Goes Up, 1961, archival pigment print, 24 x 30 inches, courtesy of the artist and Gigi Benson. © Harry Benson
Harry Benson, Meredith March, Mississippi, 1966, archival pigment print, 24 x 30 inches, courtesy of the artist and Gigi Benson. © Harry Benson. Installation view by Elin Spring.
Benson captured the spirit of the Civil Rights movement, following tenacious, besieged Black citizens – often cast with their white intimidators – along the 220-mile March Against Fear in June, 1966. So, too, does Benson convey poignancy in a numb Coretta Scott King poised with her four young children in the doorway as they watch Martin King Jr’s casket escorted off the plane in Atlanta in April, 1968.
Harry Benson, Coretta Scott King with her Children, Atlanta, negative 1968, print later, archival pigment print, 24 x 30 inches, courtesy of the artist and Gigi Benson. © Harry Benson.
Harry Benson, Ethel – Los Angeles, 1968, gelatin silver print, 27 x 20 inches, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, gift of Jonathan Otto (PA 1975), 2015.14. © Harry Benson
Just three months later, Benson found himself in the Ambassador Hotel, bearing witness to the murder of Robert Kennedy. In the frantic confusion that ensued, Benson thought, “Let me mess up tomorrow, but not today. This is for history.” His pictures of Kennedy’s pregnant wife, Ethel, attempting to block the camera with a raised arm and a solitary, bereft campaign worker left in the wake are as raw and intimate as his heart-stopping pictures of the fallen Robert Kennedy.
Harry Benson, Kennedy Campaign Worker, Los Angeles, 1968, archival pigment print, 24 x 30 inches, courtesy of the artist and Gigi Benson. © Harry Benson
Like the best photojournalists in any era, Benson’s dynamic framing and compelling compositions go a long way in the fundamental appeal of his work. But it is his preternatural intuition and sensitive finger on the pulse of human emotions that make the pivotal American events in Four Stories hit home.
Harry Benson, John Lewis, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., & Ralph Abernathy singing “We Shall Overcome” on the James Meredith March Against Fear, Mississippi, June 1966, gelatin silver print, 24 x 30 inches, courtesy of the artist and Gigi Benson. © Harry Benson
For more information go to: https://addison.andover.edu/exhibition-pages/on-view-now/
Share On Facebook
Tweet It
