The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art Opens "Shout Freedom! Photo League Selections"

Written by Meredith Summers Thursday, 03 May 2012 23:11

Cedar Rapids, Iowa.— The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art (CRMA) presents "Shout Freedom! Photo League Selections from the Columbus Museum of Art". On view from May 21st through  September 4th, "Shout Freedom!" comprises fifty-five photographs by forty-seven photographers who were active in the Photo League, including Berenice Abbott, Sid Grossman, Lisette Model, W. Eugene Smith, Aaron Siskind, and Weegee. The Photo League chronicled turbulent chapters in our history,  from the Great Depression to the World War II to the Cold War. "Shout Freedom!" acknowledges the importance of the League’s contribution to our broadening understanding of the twentieth-century American experience. “These photographs are stunning pictorial records and visual stories from our history, as well as striking works whose messages transcend the written record,” said Catherine Evans, Chief Curator, Columbus Museum of Art. “Their immediacy resonates today as a potent voice that alerts us to the present by evoking the past.”

“Once again, Arts Midwest is thrilled to be in partnership with our colleagues at the Columbus Museum of Art in helping to bring this amazing component of their collection to communities across the Midwest,” said David J. Fraher, Executive Director Arts Midwest. “Beyond representing incredible artistry, these photographs capture a critical moment in our nation’s history, and serve to remind us of lives and voices too often overlooked.” The Photo League was a unique, grass-roots collective of amateur and professional photographers who were committed to the transformative power of photography in effecting social change. “Upon the photographer,” they proclaimed, “rests the responsibility and duty of recording a true image of the world as it is today.”

The organization was founded in New York City in 1936, and endured for fifteen years until its demise in 1951 as a result of McCarthy-era politics. It was a democratic forum for dialogue, education, technical development, and social interaction and provided the only not-for-profit photography school in the U.S. The League welcomed all, and many who participated, men and women alike, were first-generation immigrants. Shared darkrooms and exhibition spaces offered affordable means to pursue their art as well as to gain exposure at a time, with few exceptions, that predated photography’s acceptance in museums and galleries.

Inspired by the extraordinary art gathered together at the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago, community leaders from Cedar Rapids formed an art club in 1895.  Ten years later, when they were offered a specially designed gallery in the new Carnegie Library, the club incorporated as the Cedar Rapids Art Association and began exhibiting art in a gallery in the newly built Carnegie Library.  The first painting was acquired for the collection in 1906.  Local artists were often important members, helping arrange exhibitions, lectures, and special events.  Among the most active members in the early 1920s were artists Grant Wood and his close friend Marvin Cone. In the early 1960s, the Art Association acquired and renovated a building for itself in a nearby downtown location (the Torch Press Building) providing 16,000 square feet of space on four floors. The Association renamed itself the Cedar Rapids Art Center and hired its first professional director since Rowan’s Depression-era tenure. In 1981, the Art Center earned accreditation by the American Association of Museums. The Cedar Rapids Public Library moved to a new building in the mid 1980s, vacating the Carnegie building where the Art Association was first established. The City of Cedar Rapids offered the original Carnegie building and some adjacent land to the Art Center. A successful campaign raised $10 million for the renovation of the Carnegie building and the construction of a 42,000 square foot addition designed by Charles W. Moore (1925-1993) and Centerbrook Architects. The new Cedar Rapids Museum of Art was formally opened with John Carter Brown (then Director of the National Gallery of Art) cutting the ribbon in December 1989. The CRMA remains an AAM accredited museum to this day. In 2002, the CRMA was given the building that houses the original studio of Grant Wood. Located just three blocks from the Museum, the loft studio, known by its fictitious address of 5 Turner Alley, was designed and constructed by Wood, who lived and worked there between 1924 and 1935. It was here that he painted American Gothic (1930) — now part of the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago — and many of his most famous paintings. The Grant Wood Studio is open to the public for guided tours several days per week. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.crma.org

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