Ansel Adams exhibit at Gilcrease: final weekend

This afternoon, our family went to Gilcrease Museum to see Ansel Adams: A Legacy, a traveling exhibit of 138 prints by the legendary photographer. Sunday, January 4, 2009, is the final day for the exhibit.

Here's a description of the exhibit from the website of the Friends of Photography, the now-defunct organization of which Adams was a founder.

Ansel Adams, A Legacy: Masterworks from The Friends of Photography Collection

ANSEL ADAMS, A LEGACY is an exhibition of over 100 photographs by Ansel Adams (1902-1984), one of this century's most admired photographers. Drawn entirely from the collection of The Friends of Photography, the
exhibition will travel to venues throughout the United States and Japan.

A tribute to the founder of The Friends of Photography, ANSEL ADAMS, A LEGACY is a comprehensive survey of the wide-ranging career of Adams. It includes the photographer's well-known vistas of natural beauty, such as Monolith, The Face of Half Dome (1927) and Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (1941) as well as more intimate portraits, close-ups and architectural views. The photographs were printed by the artist himself in the 1960s and 1970s, and attest to Adams' constant redefining and eventual perfection of the gelatin silver printing process in the last decades of his life.

Adams profoundly influenced the course of 20th century photography not only through the example of his sumptuous and technically precise images, but also by means of his personal energy and devotion to advancing the cause of photography as an art form. As an artist, educator, innovator, and writer, he helped establish many of the institutions that have come to represent the highest aspirations of the medium of photography, including The Friends of Photography.

The photos are accompanied by biographical panels and panels about the photographers and artists who collaborated with and influenced Adams, including Georgia O'Keefe, Alfred Stieglitz, and Paul Strand. It was interesting to learn that Adams was a talented pianist who gave serious consideration to pursuing a career with the instrument, and that, as a curious and somewhat disruptive child, Adams was pulled out of school at age 13 and homeschooled for a time, with the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition, being held in San Francisco in 1915, a part of his daily curriculum. It was also interesting to learn that Adams did not achieve financial success until his seventies.

My favorite of the exhibit -- Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.

Gilcrease is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Sunday. Make a point to visit this weekend to see this remarkable exhibit before it's gone.

Don't forget that City of Tulsa residents are eligible for an complimentary initial year as a charter member of the museum. You can sign up at the admissions desk or register online. Charter membership is available through June 30, 2009.

MORE: Here's photographer Jeff Shaw's review of a visit to the exhibit last November.