The name Archie Lieberman is one of the pillars of Chicago photography, just as the name Mickey Pallas is synonymous with the development of the city`s custom photo lab business.
But two major photography exhibits opening in town this spring offer a new look at the life work of these men. Pallas was a photojournalist as well as the founder and former owner of Gamma Photo Labs in Chicago. His pictures dealt with the social concerns of blacks and union laborers. A retrospective of his work opens in May at the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center.
While Lieberman traveled around the world for his numerous books and commercial work, he also photographed the struggles of a farm family in Downstate Illinois over the last 30 years. The visual biography he created is part of an exhibit called ”Farm Families,” also featuring works by Rhondal McKinney and Tom Ardnt, that opens this month at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The ”Farm Families” exhibit is a benchmark for the museum`s photography department. ”We commissioned three photographers to provide work. It`s the first time we`ve done that,” said David Travis, curator of photography at the Art Institute.
A multifaceted profile of American life carries the theme in other exhibits this spring as well.
Fashion photographer Richard Avedon`s highly publicized portraits ”In the American West” go on exhibit in May at the Art Institute. Avedon abandoned the beautiful and the mighty, usual subjects for his work, to photograph ranchers, oil workers and drifters in this collection of relentless portraits.
The Edwynn Houk Gallery presents a classic documentary view of American culture with vintage prints by Robert Frank, famous for his 1950s photographic epic, ”The Americans.” Pantheon has published a reprint of the book this year (paperback, $19.95; clothbound, $35).
The exhibits listed here also offer a chance to view some alternative approaches to the medium, everything from stereo photography for a three-dimensional perspective to hand-coloring for a mellowed, 19th-Century look.
APRIL
ARC Gallery, 356 W. Huron St., Chicago. ”Faces,” an exhibit of hand-colored, black-and-white photographs by Chicago artist Margaret Peterson, features portraits of people disguised in masks that are portraits as well.
”Friends, colleagues, relatives and even just acquaintances” eagerly donned the masks to become ”new people” for the pictures, the artist notes. Open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; through April 26. Free. 266-7607.
April 11, Standard Oil Co., Indiana Room, 200 E. Randolph Dr., Chicago.
”Chicago Lighthouse International Exhibition of Stereo Photography”
features winning work in the 38th annual juried competition sponsored by the Chicago Stereo Camera Club. The stereo image combines two separate projections of the same image. The brain interprets the resulting unified image as three- dimensional. The images will be shown at 8 p.m. The presentation will be repeated at 8 p.m. April 17 and 18 at Scripture Press Publications Inc., 1825 College Ave., Wheaton, and at 8 p.m. April 19 and 2:30 p.m. April 20 at the Bethany Methodist Home East, 4950 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago. Minimum donation is $2.50. Proceeds benefit the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind.
April 18, ArchiCenter, 330 S. Dearborn St., Chicago. ”Beverly Hills/
Morgan Park: Design for Living” offers a contemporary architectural perspective of important buildings in two old Chicago neighborhoods. Chicago photographer Mati Maldre took the black-and-white photographs for the exhibit sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation and the Beverly Area Planning Association. Open 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday;
through June 14. Free. 326-1393.
April 25, Printworks, 311 W. Superior St., Chicago. ”Scott Mutter:
Recent Photographs” features a new set of photomontages by the Chicago artist. Mutter is well known for his fantasy worlds where escalators descend to a sea of water or a skyscraper appears to make the perfect mummy`s casket, complete with a mask of the pharaoh. Silkscreened photographic images by New York city photographer John Lesnick will be exhibited at the same time. Lesnick includes portraits of an astronaut, a disc jockey, a prisoner, a yuppie and an athlete for his exhibit ”Future Icons Circa 1984.” Open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; through May 24. Free. 664-9407.
April 26, Art Institute of Chicago, Michigan Avenue at Adams Street.
”Farm Families” wasn`t meant to be a ”political exhibit,” but images of a groundswell rally in Minnesota and a young farmer losing his land at auction bring to life the precarious existence of the small farm in America today. In Rhondal McKinney`s panoramic views of farm life, the land seems to encompass not only all the farm family owns but, allegorically, all that they are. Archie Lieberman, McKinney and Tom Arndt photographed farms in Illinois, Minnesota and North Dakota for the exhibit. Lieberman and McKinney live in Downstate Illinois; Arndt lives in Minnesota. An exhibit of working class and industrial scenes in England, the work of British photographer Chris Killip, runs concurrently with ”Farm Families.” Open 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday-Saturday; 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday; through June 22. Suggested admission: adults, $4.50; seniors and students, $2.25; free on Tuesdays. 443-3600.
April 26, Art Institute of Chicago. ”Set Apart” offers a survey of still-life photographs in the Art Institute`s permanent collection. The images span the history of photography and feature work by masters in the craft such as Edward Weston and Andre Kertesz. Through Sept. 7. See above listing for times.
April 29, ARC Gallery. ”Members` Show.” The ARC is operated as a cooperative for member artists and this exhibit features a variety of photography that includes still-life images by Judy Horwich, photomontages by Marilynn Wietzman, portraits set in abstract patterns of light by Chris Stadelmeier Royal and fantasy tableaux by Shelley Cohen Fudge. Exhibit continues through May 31. See above listing for times.
MAY
May 2, Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College, 600 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. ”The New British Document” presents photographic essays by British photographers such as Keith Arnatt, Peter Fraser, Paul Graham and Martin Parr, whose approach to landscape, architecture and people challenge the conventional documentary traditions of British photography. A concurrent exhibit, ”Whaiora: The Search for Life,” will present black-and- white documentary photographs of the Maori people, whose way of life is virtually unknown outside New Zealand. New Zealand native Ans Westra is one of the few photographers in the world whom the Maori have permitted to photograph them. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday; noon-5 p.m. Saturday; through June 14. Free. 663-1600.
May 2, Edwynn Houk Gallery, 200 W. Superior St., Chicago. ”Robert Frank: Vintage Prints” offers a look at the Swiss-born Frank`s early work in Europe before he moved to the United States. The exhibit includes several unpublished photographs as well as images from Frank`s famous views of Americana. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; through June 21. 943-0698.
May 17, Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., Chicago. ”Stone Country: Photographs by Jeffrey A. Wolin” is a visual essay of the limestone industry in southern Indiana. Wolin compiled his documentary over the last three years, showing the relationship of human beings and their environment as he moves from quarry scenes to the stone workers themselves to completed limestone buildings. Open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday; through July 12. Free. Dial F-I-N-E-A-R- T.
May 29, Art Institute of Chicago. ”In the American West” tracks Richard Avedon`s five-year odyssey to county fairs, local jails, Rattlesnake Round-ups and ranches to photograph the working people of the West. The stark, life-size portraits underscore a picture of harsh existence and solemn endurance. Avedon has published a book by the same title (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., $40). Through Aug. 3. See above listing for times.
May 31, Chicago Public Library Cultural Center. ”Mickey Pallas:
Photographs 1946-1966” covers labor union activism, movie stars, the rising black consciousness and the antics of the Harlem Globetrotters with an equally humanistic eye. The exhibit spans Pallas` career as a photojournalist and commercial photographer. Through July 12. See above listing for times.
JUNE
June 3, ARC Gallery, ”Tattoo Taboo” presents Chicago photographer Jeff Crisman`s pictures of tattoed bodies. The exhibit is planned in conjunction with a theatrical performance of the same title at the gallery. Photographs of artists and would-be artists taken by Francisco Caceres will be shown concurrently under the exhibit title, ”Do Artists Really Look Like This?”
Through June 28. See above listing for times.
June 20, Museum of Contemporary Photography. ”Wildlife Requiem”
reflects Denver photographer James Balog`s search for an answer to the question of why people hunt in an age when hunting is unnecessary to survival. Balog, a former hunter himself, contrasts scenic color landscapes with the brutal world of the hunter and hunted. In a concurrent exhibit, ”Common Ground,” Wisconsin photographer Gregory Coniff presents ”personal landscapes” of yards and homes. The artists says the landscapes help him to see the value of elements of life that are ”often invisible in their commonness.” Through Aug. 1. See above listing for times.
