Barney/diCorcia/Goldin/Mann/Sultan Share Their Private Realities with the Public at the Art Institute in Fall 2006

Major Photography Exhibition So The Story Goes Opens September 16
All Five Artists to Attend "Snap" Photoraphy Gala

April 18, 2006

MEDIA CONTACT:                 
Chai Lee
(312) 443-3625

The Art Institute of Chicago will showcase more than 150 works by five of the best current photographers—Tina Barney, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nan Goldin, SallyMann, and Larry Sultan—whose images over the past two decades have documented and come to define contemporary life. So the Story Goes, on view in the museum's Regenstein Hall September 16–December 3, 2006, will offer a focused consideration of how this select group of artists used their own lives as the inspiration for and subjectmatter of their work from the 1970s through 2006, creating highly personal, shifting, and intriguing visions of their respective private realities. Additionally, this exhibition will celebrate recent important acquisitions made by the Art Institute: the first Sultan to enter the collection, Mom Posing for Me (1989); the first Barney to enter the collection, Jill and Polly in the Bathroom (1987) (see below); and selections from Mann's intimate "Immediate Family" series. The Art Institute will be the sole venue for this exhibition.

“Snap: The First Photography Benefit Gala”

“Snap,” the first gala ever organized by the Art Institute’s Photography Department, will be the official opening reception for So the Story Goes at the museum on September 15, 2006. Barney, diCorcia, Goldin, Mann, and Sultan are all expected as the honored guests. Co chairs for the gala are Chicago-area community leaders Bradford L. Ballast, Karen Frank, and Elizabeth Bryan Seebeck, who are also prominent members of the Committee on Photography at the Art Institute. This glamorous evening aims to excite a new generation about contemporary art photography and celebrate the opening of the major exhibition. Individual tickets to the gala reception (8:00 to 11:00 p.m.) at the museum are $125 and can be purchased by phone at (312) 443-7250 or e-mail. Proceeds from the gala will establish an endowed fund for photography acquisitions.

So the Story Goes Catalogue

A catalogue exclusively distributed by Yale University Press will accompany So the Story Goes. The publication will feature an introductory essay by exhibition curator Katherine Bussard, assistant curator of photography, entries on each of the five artists, four-color reproductions of nearly 20 photographs by each artist, and a handful of historical illustrations. Bussard, a Ph.D. candidate in art history at the City University of New York, specializes in contemporary photography and has worked previously for the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Clark Art Institute. Numbering 128 pages, this softcover book sells for $24.95 and will be available in September 2006 in the Museum Shop.