Frances Colpitt

An exhibition of recent photography organized by Frances Colpitt, “Color Pictures” examines color as a subject matter in works by John Baldessari, Sarah Charlesworth, William Eggleston, Russell Lee, Thomas Ruff, Stephen Shore, Allison V. Smith, and Ann Stautberg. The exhibition charts the merger of art and photography from the 1970s to the present. During this period, both the photo world and the art world were transformed by the conflict between photography’s high technical and aesthetic standards and the intentionally amateur and nonchalant approach to the camera by conceptually-oriented artists who used the camera to document their often ephemeral materials and elusive ideas. Their rocky fusion led not only to the acceptance of the photographic medium as a legitimate tool for art making, but also to unparalleled growth in the number of artists using the camera in the 1980s and 1990s. Both the exhibit and the catalogue offer a variety of insights into the meaningful role of color in visual art and in the visible world. The catalogue includes essays and color plates from the exhibition, as well as an introductory essay by Colpitt that outlines the issues at stake in the use of color in recent photography. Commentaries on Individual artists were written by graduate students in TCU’s School of Art who participated in a graduate art history seminar, Photography In/As/ Not As Art, spring 2012.

Documenting the work of twelve contemporary sculptors from Texas, Material Culture was published to accompany the exhibition of the same name at TCU in 2008. Both representational and abstract, the works in the exhibition were made from readymade and commonplace materials with an emphasis on craft, process, and the use of the hand. Providing a survey of the ongoing embrace of object making in Texas, the essays in this book examine formal, conceptual, cultural, and social issues from American and international perspectives. The authors do not argue for a regional sensibility, given the irrelevance of regionalism in our global society, but for the strength of an art that celebrates material culture in an increasingly dematerialized world. Artists represented include Helen Altman, Richie Budd, Margarita Cabrera, Bill Davenport, Jonathan Durham, Lily Hanson, Joseph Havel, Jessica Halonen, Katrina Moorhead, Chris Sauter, Polly Lanning Sparrow, and Brad Tucker. Multiple color photographs document the works as they appeared in the exhibition. Each artist is also represented by an extensive biography and bibliography.

In this important work, Frances Colpitt chronicles the Minimal art movement of the 1960s. Maintaining the original spirit of the period--enthusiasm for innovation and a passionate commitment to intellectual inquiry--Colpitt provides an excellent documentary history that is both thorough and nonpartisan.Using a metacritical approach that embraces critical writings of the artists themselves, interviews by herself and the others, and a generous sampling of illustrations, Colpitt sets foth the issues and arguments and identifies key concepts that are crucial to an understanding of Minimal art. These include the frequent use of industrial materials and techniques; nonrelational principles of composition; and theoretical issues of scale, presence and thatricality. Also discussed are issues of abstraction, illusion, and reductionism as revealed in the writing and artistic productions of such leading innovators as Frank Stella, Donald Judd, and Robert Morris, among others. An appendix lists major exhibitions and reviews.