The Big Picture

By Suzanne Révy

Go big or go home! And fortunately for us, the Fitchburg Art Museum has opted to go big.  Under the direction of Nick Capasso, who has been with the museum since late 2012, they have doubled the size of their impressive collection of photography over the past five years. They now hold over two-thousand photographs from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries including a variety of portfolios that reveal historic arcs and monumental contemporary prints that envelop viewers in extraordinary details and visual dramas. The Big Picture: Giant Photographs and Powerful Portfolios is a two-part exhibition of recent acquisitions at the Fitchburg Art Museum currently on view through June 6th, 2021. 

André Kertesz “Midtown Manhattan” 1938 silver gelatin print gift of Harley Fastman, courtesy of the Fitchburg Art Museum

Kenji Nakahashi “Antennae” 1993, gelatin silver print, Anonymous gift in honor of the Kenji Nakahashi and Stephen B. Jarecki, courtesy of the Fitchburg Art Museum.

The portfolios include vintage works by the 20th century master André Kertesz, the contemporary color street photographs of  Ruben Natal-San Miguel, conceptual work by the late Kenji Nakahashi, black and white silver gelatin prints of nuclear test sites by Barbara Norfleet, and searingly painful still life images by Steve Locke. Early twentieth century photographers rarely created distinct projects or portfolios, but seeing the pictures of Kertesz (1896-1985) made over sixty years emphasizes his eye for space, texture, tone and framing. At the same time, he created an extraordinary record of the twentieth century form his native Hungary to his time spent in Paris and later in New York. Like Kertesz, Ruben Natal-San Miguel wanders with a camera to make pictures of the city where he lives, but his approach is less stealthy. He engages with his subjects, asks permission and revels in the sartorial eccentricities of the urban dwellers he encounters on streets and subways and cooling among the city’s hydrants in sweltering summer heat. In some, Natal San Miguel employs visual puns, which was the stock in trade in still lives by Kenji Nakahashi. In “Antenna,” for example he creates a visual kinship between a cockroach and a broken light bulb or explores the relationship between Japan and Italy by comparing a fan with a slice of pizza.

Ruben Natal-San Miguel “Exuberance (Fighter) East Harlem, NYC” from the Inner Child Urban Water series, Kodak Endure metallic print, gift of Dr. Anthony Terrana, courtesy of the artist and the Fitchburg Art Museum.

Barbara Norfleet “Navel weapons testing base, abandoned” 1989, The Salton Sea, California, gelatin silver print, gift of Martin Goldman and Dorothy Klepper, courtesy of the artist and the Fitchburg Art Museum.

Steve Locke “Untitled (Wannabe)” 2016, Epson Ultrachrome K3 pigment ink set on 100% cotton Hahnemuhle photo rag baryta glossy paper, produced in collaboration with Samsøñ and Palm Press, museum purchase with the Saundra Lane and Robert and Elaine Smith photography funds, courtesy of the artist and the Fitchburg Art Museum.

By creating a series of pictures around one subject, the final two portfolios, Barbara Norfleet’s Landscapes of the Cold War and Steve Locke’s Family Pictures present troubling aspects of American history in a rhythmic drumbeat that in the case of Norfleet are hauntingly beautiful and in Locke, agonizingly painful. By turning her attention to the abandoned sites of nuclear weapons testing, Norfleet invites viewers into stark black and white landscapes peppered with atomic era structures illuminated under an arid desert sun. These empty landscapes evoke the sense of eerie stillness that envelopes a place in the wake of violent trauma. Steve Locke appropriates vernacular postcards of lynchings and Black nannies, places them in frames that are adorned with sentimental and clichéd expressions and photographs them on a beautifully crafted wood table. The stark contrast between the words, images and setting reveal that not every family has been able enjoy or even strive for the American dream, despite the myth that that is reinforced among the tchotchkes found in a Hallmark store. 

Pierre Gonnord “Friederich” 2010 digital chromogenic print on Hahnemühle paper, gift of Dr. Anthony Terrana, installation photograph by Suzanne Révy.

Hector Mediavilla “Delagrace aka ‘The Icon of Beautiful Color'” 2006 digital print on Hahnemühle paper, museum purchase, Sinon Collection Fund, courtesy of the Fitchburg Art Museum.

Hector Mediavilla “Patrice Ngolo, the Sapeur” 2008(left), Gil Blank, “Untitled” (center) Hector Mediavilla “”Delagrace aka ‘The Icon of Beautiful Color'” 2010, installation photograph by Suzanne Révy

The second part of the show, Giant Photographs is a dazzling installation of immense prints that rival majestic painting. It features a broad scope of subjects from portraiture, landscape, still life to graphic typology and constructed imagery. Pierre Gonnord’s portrait Friedrich summons visitors to study the curves and lines of an elderly face surrounded by delicate wisps of hair, a flowing white beard and knowing eyes bathed in classic Rembrandt light. Gonnord chooses his sitters from among the invisible and disenfranchised to present them in a manner that was historically reserved for the nobility. And Hector Mediavilla’s  sublime full length portraits of Congolese men who express themselves through stylish western menswear explore the ideas around identity and colonialism, but are disrupted by the bold graphic image of a stealth bomber by Gil Blank. 

Hong Lei “Speak Memory” 2005, six color photographs, gift of Dr. Anthony Terrana, installation photograph by Suzanne Révy.

Noriko Furunishi “Untitled (Dirt Track” 2005, c-print Artex, gift of James Pallota, courtesy of the Fitchburg Art Museum.

Miao Xiaochun “Another Time” 2002, chromogenic print, gift of Dr. Anthony Terrana, installation photograph by Suzanne Révy

Japanese and Chinese painting have influenced several of the works including Hong Lei’s multiple image installation Speak Memory, Noriko Furunishi’s Unititled (Dirt Track) and Miao Xiaochun’s urban digital collage Another Time. In Speak Memory, Hong Lei employs wire to suspend fruit, flowers before a serene field of white only to discover serpents and bugs lurking in the image upon closer inspection. And Furunishi and Xiachun digitally stitch and manipulate scenes into elongated narrow frames. And finally, constructed images such as Paolo Ventura’s War Souvenir #43 and Ambra Polidori’s VII introduce disturbing dreams or fantasies in emotionally charged compositions. 

Paolo Ventura “War Souvenir #43” 2005, chromogenic print, gift of Dr. Anthony Terrana, courtesy of the Fitchburg Art Museum.

Ambra Polidori “VII” 2006, from the series Once Upon a Time, inkjet and UV varnish on canvas, gift of Dr. Anthony Terrana, installation photograph by Suzanne Révy.

The one trait each picture shares with the others is their size. This is perhaps always a weakness with any show organized around recent acquisitions, but the lack of a cohesive theme diminishes the resonance of the show as a whole, while still allowing these alluring large prints to bathe viewers in fields of form and content that are moving and expressive. It is gratifying to see a small museum prioritize photography in their collections.

(Featured Image) Ruben Natal-San Miguel “Stop and Frisk” Harlem, NYC, 2013, Kodak Endura metallic chromogenic print, gift of Dr. Anthony Terrana, courtesy of the artist and the Fitchburg Art Museum.

For more information: 

https://fitchburgartmuseum.org