Overview:
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Member Preview Day: June 28, 10:00–5:00

Jeff Wall is considered one of the most acclaimed and influential artists of his generation. He uses state-of-the-art photographic and computer technologies to make pictures that evoke the composition, scale, and ambition of the grandest history paintings. This exhibition presents a comprehensive overview of Wall’s nearly 30-year career.

Jeff Wall. Milk, 1984. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Acquired through the Mary Joy Thomson Legacy. �© Jeff Wall.

Wall uses state-of-the-art photographic and computer technology to make pictures that evoke the composition, scale, and ambition of the grandest history paintings. His often giant color transparencies are mounted on light boxes that combine the seductive glow of a cinema screen or public advertising with the physical presence of minimalist sculpture. Over the last three decades, Wall’s intellectual rigor and critical accomplishment have aided significantly in placing photography at the very center of contemporary art discourse. His works often have the formal clarity of documentary photography or photojournalism, yet almost all of his photographs rely on, to varying degrees, staged or constructed artifices.

Both the degree and nature of Wall’s inventions vary significantly from picture to picture. In some works, the scene has been created through the conventional manipulation of objects or individuals in real time and real space. In this sense, Wall works as a film director might, using sets, lighting, and camera angles to stage a narrative or effect an illusion. At other times, he relies upon virtual manipulations, creating a fantasy image with no real referent in the actual world through the aid of computer technology and digital montage. Since 1991, many of his major works are the result of digitally conjoining several discrete photographic moments shot “in the field” with manufactured images produced in the studio.

Catalogue: The exhibition catalogue includes an interview with the artist by James Rondeau, Frances and Thomas Dittmer Chair of Contemporary Art. The hardcover book sells for $50 (10% off for members) and may be purchased in the Museum Shop or online at www.artinstituteshop.org.

Organizer: Jeff Wall is organized by the Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Curator: The Art Institute's organizing curator is James Rondeau. Exhibition curators are Peter Galassi, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Neal Benezra, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Other Venues: Museum of Modern Art, New York: February 25-May 14, 2007
Art Institute of Chicago: June 29-September 23, 2007
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: October 27, 2007-January 27, 2008

Sponsor: LaSalle Bank is the Lead Corporate Sponsor of the Chicago presentation.

The exhibition is also supported by the Boeing Company.

Additional support provided by Howard and Donna Stone.