"The Art of Frederick Sommer" by Keith F. Davis

The Art of Frederick Sommer Photography, Drawing, Collage Keith F. Davis, Michael Torosian, April M. Watson

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Format:: Hardback
Publication date:: 10 May 2005
ISBN:: 9780300107838
Imprint:: Yale University Press
Dimensions:: 252 pages: 324 x 286mm
Illustrations:: 133 tritones + 28 duotones + 52 color illus.
Sales territories:: World

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"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.

Keith F. Davis is Hallmark Fine Art Programs director and visiting research professor of art history, University of Missouri, Kansas City. Michael Torosian is proprietor of Lumiere Press, Canada. April M. Watson is research associate and adjunct professor, Department of Art and Art History, University of Missouri, Kansas City.

'[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].' - Craig Bunch,