The Charles Addams Gallery of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design is pleased to launch the 2008-2009 academic year with an exhibition of works from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation, Inc. The exhibition, Through You: Photography Selections from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection is on view at Charles Addams Gallery from September 4th through October 24th, 2008.
The exhibition contains 56 works from the Margulies Collection in Miami, Florida. Many of the pieces have rarely been exhibited, including selections from Cindy Sherman’s Untitled (Bus Riders) series, Andreas Gursky’s Voehsgortem, Düsseldorf, and John Baldessari’s Two Voided Figures. The exhibition also includes well-known staples of photographers’ repertoire, such as Sally Mann’s The Two Mothers (from Immediate Family). The exhibition traces the course of photography through showcasing some of the most prominent figures in contemporary photography and icons in the history of photography, for example Garry Winogrand, Alec Soth, Seydou Keïta, Diane Arbus, William Eggleston, Nan Goldin, Ralph Eugene Meatyard—the list goes on. Among the exhibition highlights is an installation by Christian Boltanski. His piece Reserve comprises two rows of stacked tin boxes with large black and white portraits of anonymous faces resting on top. Attached to the photographs are lamps that are directed inches away from the middle of the faces, acting as searing spotlights.
Our PennDesign Photography students were an integral part of the curation of this exhibition; the selections pulled from the Margulies photography holdings were based on photographers chosen by our seniors and 2nd-year MFA students. The list of artists selected for Through You was generated in response to our students’ answers to the following questions:
“Who are your favorite photographers?”
“Which photographic artists inspire you and your work?”
The second step in the selection process was to match their answers with the artists represented from the works available within the Margulies Collection. A distinct contemporary approach to portraiture is the common thread running through the works. Although open and disparate in style, all but one of the selected pieces included in this exhibition, Thomas Demand’s Bed Salon (Parlour), depicts individuals as essential subject matter.
Martin Z. Margulies, an alumnus from the Wharton School of Finance of the University of Pennsylvania, and a successful developer of South Florida luxury real estate projects for the past 35 years, began collecting in 1976. Today, the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse located in Miami is a 45,000 square feet exhibition space, owned by Martin Z. Margulies and curated by Katherine Hinds. Mr. Margulies has a growing contemporary art collection of photography, video, installation work, and sculpture.
Through You: Photography Selections from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection will be accompanied by a full-color illustrated Exhibition Catalogue available through the Undergraduate Fine Arts Department, University of Pennsylvania. Essays included within the catalog, addressing the various themes running through the exhibition, were created by Fine Arts photography students, and by PennDesign faculty members, co-organizers of the exhibition- Julie Saecker Schneider (Director, Undergraduate Fine Arts Department), Gabriel Martinez and Karen Rodewald (Undergraduate Photography Program), along with a Conversation and Interview, with both Martin Z. Margulies and the collection’s curator Katherine Hinds, by graduate photography faculty member Eileen Neff.
University of Pennsylvania
School of Design, Department of Fine Arts
The Charles Addams Fine Arts Gallery
200 South 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6229
Pernot Hudson, Exhibitions Coordinator: 215-573-5134
Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday 10am-5pm
