The Art of Frederick Sommer
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Photography, Drawing, Collage
Essay by Keith F. Davis; Interview by Michael Torosian; Chronology by April M. Watson
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Format: ClothPrice: $70.00
"In total acceptance, almost everything becomes a revelation."--Frederick Sommer
This stunning book—published in the artist’s centenary—chronicles the extraordinary life and work of Frederick Sommer (1905–1999). One of the great masters and key innovators in the history of art photography, Sommer was a complex and highly creative individual. His work in photography is unconventional and fascinating for its wide range of methodologies and techniques. He also explored making images with other media, creating masterful drawings, collages, and musical scores.
Arriving in Arizona in 1931, Sommer abandoned his original profession, landscape architecture, and began painting and drawing. After meeting Alfred Stieglitz in 1935 and Edward Weston in 1936, Sommer embraced and quickly mastered photography. Other artists who later proved inspirational to Sommer included Precisionist painter and photographer Charles Sheeler, Surrealist artist Max Ernst, and photographer Aaron Siskind.
With an essay by photo historian Keith F. Davis, exquisite reproductions of Sommer’s diverse works, and a detailed chronology of his life by April Watson, The Art of Frederick Sommer describesand documents the full extent of the artist’s achievement as a twentieth-century visionary. The book is a revelation for scholars, artists, students, and everyone who admires and appreciates creative genius.
Distributed for the Frederick and Frances Sommer Foundation
Exhibition Schedule:
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (May 14 – July 31, 2005)
Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana (September 11 - November 27, 2005)
The J. Paul Getty Museum (May 10 – September 4, 2005)
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (May 14 – July 31, 2005)
Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana (September 11 - November 27, 2005)
The J. Paul Getty Museum (May 10 – September 4, 2005)
"With powerful images and eloquent text, The Art of Frederick Sommer presents the life’s work of our greatest visual poet. This is a book for the ages and a celebration of one hundred years, and it confirms how Sommer’s ideas and sources link him to a profound belief in aesthetics as a way of life. To all who now hold this book in their hands: your life may never be the same. "—Emmet Gowin, Princeton University
"The Brazilian-born Sommer gets the royal treatment, with sumptuous reproductions, a detailed and strenuously interpretive essay from photo historian Keith Davis, and an Arbus-like chronology."—Art on Paper
“The Art of Frederic Sommer is a sumptuous affair. . . . A stunning book.”—Art Times
“Frederick Sommer, a once-celebrated yet also underrated and misunderstood artist, is overdue for a revival, and this illuminating and sumptuous book will be the catalyst. . . . Heretofore an artist’s artist, Sommer deserves greater appreciation for the ‘mysterious, crystalline precision’ of his evocative work, and his uncanny ability to discern beauty in every manifestation and phase of life.”—Booklist
“This monograph—the first to focus exclusively on Sommer—offers absorbing, little-known details of his life, literary and philosophical influences, and development as an artist. . . . Recommended for all collections focusing on photography and surrealism.”—Library Journal
“The Art of Frederic Sommer is a sumptuous affair. . . . A stunning book.”—Art Times
"The book's sequencing of images wholly succeeds in creating a powerful contemplative experience, and the enticing arguments Davis offers in his introductory remarks incite a hunger for fresh, detailed scholarship about each of Sommer's works."—Publishers Weekly
"[a] superb catalogue... collecting the largest selection to date of Sommer's art... Any art or photography library and its patrons would be enriched by this beautiful presentation of the American photographer [Frederick Sommer]."---The Art Book
Winner of the 2006 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Fine Arts category.
Winner of Honorable Mention for the 2005 George Wittenborn Memorial Award sponsored by the Art Libraries Society of North America.
Publication Date: May 10, 2005
Publishing Partner: Distributed for the Frederick and Frances Sommer Foundation
133 tritones + 28 duotones + 52 color illus.
