Unmasked and Anonymous: Shimon & Lindemann Consider Portraiture

August 14–November 30, 2008
Koss Gallery

Wisconsin photographers John Shimon & Julie Lindemann have made a career of conflating the contemporary with the historical. In the portraits that form the bulk of their oeuvre, the subjects are people who pass through their lives. Most of their pictures are made using labor-intensive photographic techniques such as the gum bichromate and platinum-palladium processes favored by turn-of-the-twentieth-century Pictorialist photographers. The result: rich and subtly modulated prints with deep resonances in the history of portraiture. Further, these prints focus our attention on the correspondences and disparities between personality and its representation in photographs. For the exhibition, the artists collaborated with Associate Curator of Photographs Lisa Hostetler to select forty-three portraits from among their works, as well as fifty-four from the Museum’s photographs collection. By interrogating the conventions, history, and abiding presentness of photographic portraiture, the show examines the temporal interrelationship between photography and the portrayal of individuality. A catalogue accompanies the exhibition with essays by Shimon & Lindemann and Lisa Hostetler.

This exhibition was organized by the Museum and sponsored by the West Foundation, with additional support provided by the Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation.

Images:

J. Shimon & J. Lindemann (American, b. 1961; American, b. 1957), Mel with His Bottling Machine, Seymour, Wisconsin, 2007, Archival inkjet print, 20 x 16 in. Ed.2/10, Courtesy of the artists

J. Shimon & J. Lindemann (American, b. 1961; American, b. 1957), Elise at Work, Hortonville, Wisconsin, 2007 Inkjet pigment print from 8 x 10 transparency, 20 x 16 in. Ed. 2/10, Courtesy of the artists.

James Van Der Zee (American, 1886-1983), Distraction, 1930, Hand-colored gelatin silver print, 9 9/16 x 7 9/16 in. Milwaukee Art Museum Purchase, African American Art Acquisition Fund, Photography by John R. Glembin

J. Shimon & J. Lindemann (American, b. 1961; American, b. 1957), The Revenal Sisters (Carrie & Trish), 1995, Platinum-palladium print, 14 x 11 in. Ed. 1/3, Courtesy of the artists