John Pfahl, Four Corners Power Plant (AM) Farmington, New Mexico, 1982
John Pfahl was a pioneer in the transformation of American landscape photography in the 1970s, and his body of work has since influenced generations who shoot the land.
Through his career, Pfahl’s approach has encouraged artists and viewers alike to contemplate the image both conceptually and visually and to consider questions about the way humans interact with the land, both socially and photographically. Over the last half-century, Pfahl’s work has keenly reflected these perceptual and societal changes through numerous series dealing with the environment, constructed, natural and, in many cases, both.
Pfahl died of the novel coronavirus on April 15, 2020, in Buffalo, New York. An obituary for Pfahl is part of a series in the New York Times about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic.
John Pfahl New York, NY 1939–Buffalo, NY 2020 Volcano Lightning, Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii from the Altered Landscapes portfolio Dye transfer print, 1978 8 × 10 inches Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, gift of Lawrence Marx, U-3478.17.1983More info
In the mid 1960s, the museum purchased nineteen original prints directly from Imogen Cunningham with the intent of demonstrating the depth and breadth of her talents as a leading woman photographer of the twentieth century. The clarity of vision and strong, uncluttered composition of her photographs exemplify the aesthetic of Group f/64, an informal association she cofounded in 1932 with six other photographers including Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.
"It is very rewarding after all these years of work to have you decide on keeping the list of prints sent,” Cunningham wrote in a September 1966 letter to Norman Geske, Sheldon’s founding director. “It seems that only now are people beginning to think of photography both as an art and as historic representation.”
Imogen Cunningham Portland, OR 1883–San Francisco, CA 1976 Magnolia Blossom Gelatin silver print, 1925 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-2001.1966More info
Gordon Parks, a groundbreaking photographer of the postwar years, is best remembered for the commitment to social justice with which he documented American culture from the 1940s until his death in 2006.
Sheldon's 2015 exhibition Gordon Parks: Segregation Story comprised images from his photo essay “The Restraints: Open and Hidden,” commissioned by Life magazine in 1956. For the article, Parks chronicled the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Thornton and members of their extended family.
This compelling body of work exposed the restrictive oppression of Jim Crow laws on black families, who like the Thortons, shared the ambitions, responsibilities, and routines of other Americans. The images revealed social inequality that was unnoticed, ignored, or condoned by many in the majority culture.
A fraction of the images Parks shot for the assignment were published in Life. The rest were presumed lost for decades. In 2012, the Gordon Parks Foundation discovered more than two hundred transparencies constituting the full series.
Born in Kansas in 1912, Parks began his career as a photographer for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). He worked as a freelance photographer before joining Life, where he remained for two decades. Parks, an accomplished composer, author, filmmaker, and cofounder of Essence magazine, held over fifty honorary doctorates and received a National Medal of Arts in 1988. He died in 2006 at the age of ninety-three.
Gordon Parks Fort Scott, KS 1912–New York, NY 2006 Outside Looking In, Mobile, Alabama, 1956 (at top) Willie Causey and Family, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956 Archival pigment prints, 2013 28 × 28 inches Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Robert E. Schweser and Fern Beardsley Schweser Acquisition Fund, through the University of Nebraska Foundation, U-6471 and 6472.2015More info
Adapted from a story in Nebraska Today by Troy Fedderson
Like a kid on the first day of school, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln opened the fall semester 2017 with a fresh—albeit torn—notebook.
As part of regular maintenance, Torn Notebook—the iconic, large-scale sculpture at 12th and Q streets that depicts a well-used notebook fluttering in the wind—was repainted to specifications outlined by its artists, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. The project, which was completed in late August 2017, included a complete assessment of the sculpture’s condition, cleaning, sanding, and application of primer and specialized, artist-approved paint.
“Over the years, everything from birds to people to Nebraska’s ever-changing weather take their toll on our outdoor sculptures,” said Genevieve Ellerbee, Sheldon’s associate registrar. “Structurally, Torn Notebook is in great shape. This is just a sprucing up, to return faded paint to the artists’ intended color and have the sculpture looking pristine again.”
Torn Notebook is one of about thirty-five campus sculptures that are part of Sheldon’s collection and on display across the university’s City and East campuses. As the artworks are ambassadors of both the university and museum, Sheldon employees conduct weekly assessments of the sculptures, looking for damage or potential problems.
For each outdoor sculpture, Sheldon keeps exacting records on the materials used in the compositions. Recorded details for the painted sculptures include color samples/chips and information about the chemical breakdown of each paint/compound applied to the structure.
“The reports are given to the conservators so they are able to make certain all the right things are being done to preserve and protect the sculptures,” Ellerbee said. “For Torn Notebook, that meant even looking at samples of the silver paint under a microscope to confirm methods used to give it that glossy, spring-like metal look.”
The in-depth records help Sheldon maintain each artwork to the exacting standards of the original artists for generations of Nebraskans and campus visitors to come.
Claes Oldenburg born Stockholm, Sweden 1929 Coosje van Bruggen Groningen, Netherlands 1942–Los Angeles, CA 2009 Torn Notebook (detail), 1992; fabricated 1996 Stainless steel, steel, and aluminum; painted with polyurethane enamel; 262 x 276 x 313 inches Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Olga N. Sheldon Acquisition Trust and friends of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery (Aliant Communications; Bahr, Vermeer and Haecker Architects; Karen and Robert Duncan, Duncan Foundation; M.E. and Harold Gifford; Carole Anne and Roger D. Sack; Ann and Frank Sidles in memory of Phil L. Sidles and Harold P. Stebbins; Paula and Durward Varner; Sally and Jack Campbell; Pat and Bill Lundak; Charlene and Bill Miller, Anheuser–Busch Foundation; Carl and Jane Rohman; June and Paul Schorr, III; Security Federal; Margaret and J.S. Berry; Maria R. and Donald M. Cox; Mr. and Mrs. J. Taylor Greer; Mary and Cliff Hillegass; Karen and John Janovy; Ruth A. and Martin A. Massengale; Nebraska Bookstore; Annette and Paul Smith; Katherine C. and Elwood N. Thompson; The Mill, Dale Nordyke), U–4666.1.1993More info
Recognized as one of the foremost American modernists, Marsden Hartley created a highly individualized body of work influenced by his frequent experimentation with abstraction and figuration, a search for spirituality in art and nature, and a nomadic lifestyle.
Hartley spent the early part of 1932 in Mexico, where he embarked on an extensive study of Aztec history and culture. This painting is one of four from that period depicting Popocatépetl, one of Mexico’s highest active volcanoes. Meaning “smoking mountain” in the indigenous Nahuatl language, Popocatépetl was named for a warrior who took his own life after the death of his betrothed and was later transformed into the mountain.
Marsden Hartley Lewiston, ME 1877–Ellsworth, ME 1943 Popocatépetl, One Morning Oil on Masonite, 1932 23 1/8 × 27 3/4 inches Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Howard S. Wilson Memorial, U-506.1966More info
