About this artwork
In the early 1960s Robert Adams returned to Colorado, where he had spent part of his childhood, and embarked on a teaching career. Disturbed by the suburbanized landscape he discovered and inspired by the 19th-century work of expeditionary photographer Timothy O’Sullivan, he took up photography to confront the changes wrought on the natural environment of his youth. In 1975 Adams was included in New Topographics, a landmark exhibition of ten photographers who observed the postwar built environment with deadpan criticism. Adams has continued ever since to photograph the American West, documenting the ways in which humans and the unbuilt landscape intersect. Writing about this work—part of a series titled Los Angeles Spring—Adams lamented, “Whether those trees that stand are reassuring is a question for a lifetime. All that is clear is the perfection of what we were given, the unworthiness of our response, and the certainty … that we are judged. ”
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Photography and Media
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Artist
- Robert Adams
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Title
- Expressway near Colton, California
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Place
- United States (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- Made 1983
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Medium
- Gelatin silver print
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Inscriptions
- Unmarked recto; inscribed verso, lower left, in graphite: "Expressway near Colton, California"; stamped and inscribed verso, lower center, in black ink and graphite: "Copyright © [stamped in black ink] 1986 [inscribed in graphite] by Robert Adams [stamped in black ink]; signed and inscribed verso, lower left, in graphite: "Robert Adams 1983"
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Dimensions
- Image: 22.8 × 28.5 cm (9 × 11 1/4 in.); Paper: 27.7 × 35.4 cm (10 15/16 × 13 15/16 in.)
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Credit Line
- The Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition Funds
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Reference Number
- 1989.128
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
