Henry Wessel Jr. Explained

Henry Wessel
Birth Date:July 28, 1942
Birth Place:Teaneck, New Jersey, US
Death Place:Bay Area, California, US
Nationality:American
Education:B.A. – Pennsylvania State University
M.F.A. – State University of New York at Buffalo
Occupation:Photographer

Henry Wessel (July 28, 1942 – September 20, 2018) was an American photographer and educator. He made "obdurately spare and often wry black-and-white pictures of vernacular scenes in the American West".[1]

Wessel produced a number of books of photography. He was the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and three National Endowment for the Arts grants and his work is included in the permanent collections of major American, European, and Asian museums.

His first solo exhibition was curated by John Szarkowski at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1972 and he was one of ten photographers included in the influential New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape exhibition at George Eastman House in 1975. His work has since been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Tate Modern in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Wessel was emeritus professor of art at San Francisco Art Institute, where he taught from 1973 to 2014.

Life and work

Wessel was born in Teaneck, New Jersey[1] and raised in Ridgefield. He graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1966, where he discovered his lifelong career interest through an encounter with a work of photographs he picked up in a book store near the campus, which led him to give up his previous interest in psychology.[2] Throughout much of his career he used only one camera and one type of film: a Leica 35 mm camera with a 28 mm wide-angle lens and Kodak Tri-X film.[1] [3] His later work did incorporate color.[4]

Wessel was emeritus professor of art at San Francisco Art Institute, where he taught from 1973 to 2014.[1] [5]

Sandra S. Phillips, senior curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art wrote, "Wessel's remarkable work, witty, evocative and inventive, is distinctive and at the same time a component part of the great development of photography which flourished in the 1970s. The pictures continue to grow and evolve and the work is now regarded as an individual important contribution to twentieth century American photography.[6]

Wessel died at the age of 76 in his home in Point Richmond, Richmond, California from pulmonary fibrosis on September 21, 2018.[5] [2]

Publications

Publications by Wessel

Publications with contributions by Wessel

Exhibitions

Solo

Group

Awards

Collections

Wessel's work is held in the following public collections:

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Gefter. Philip. Henry Wessel: Capturing the Image, Transcending the Subject. 13 July 2015. The New York Times. May 21, 2006.
  2. [Philip Gefter|Gefter, Philip]
  3. Web site: Berkeley Daily Planet, Berkeley. California. 2018-09-22. Henry Wessel: Photographing the Physical World. Category: Arts Listings from The Berkeley Daily Planet. www.berkeleydailyplanet.com.
  4. Web site: Henry Wessel Jr., House Pictures . Fraenkel Gallery.
  5. News: 2018-09-22. Henry Wessel, prominent Bay Area photographer, dies. San Francisco Chronicle.
  6. Book: Sandra S. Phillips

    . Phillips. Sandra S.. Sandra S. Phillips. Zander. Thomas. Henry Wessel. 2007. Steidl. Göttingen, Germany. 978-3865213914.

  7. Book: Franzen. Brigitte. Schultz. Anna Sophia. Closer than Fiction: American Visual Worlds around 1970. 2011. Walther König. Köln, Germany. 978-3863351199.
  8. Book: Hamilton. Elizabeth. Under the Big Black Sun: California Art, 1974-1981. 2011. The Museum of Contemporary Art. Los Angeles, CA. 978-3791351391.
  9. Web site: 2018-09-22. Photographs by Henry Wessel Jr.. www.moma.org.
  10. Web site: 2018-09-22. SFMOMA Presents Henry Wessel: Photographs. SFMOMA.
  11. News: Michael. Kimmelman. 2018-09-22. Henry Wessel - Photography - Art - Review. The New York Times . 6 March 2007 .
  12. Web site: 2018-09-22. Henry Wessel. Tate.org.uk.
  13. Web site: Karin. Andreasson. 2018-09-22. Henry Wessel's best photograph: a mystery in a California garden. 6 August 2014. The Guardian.
  14. Web site: Mirrors and Windows : American Photography since 1960. PDF. July 26, 1978. Major Exhibition of Recent American Photography at MoMA. Moma.org. 22 September 2018.
  15. Web site: Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West - MoMA. Moma.org. 22 September 2018.
  16. Web site: In Focus: Los Angeles, 1945–1980 (Getty Center Exhibitions). Getty.edu. 22 September 2018.
  17. Web site: Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. 22 September 2018.
  18. Web site: Under The Big Black Sun - Art in America. Artinamericamagazine.com. 30 November 2011 . 22 September 2018.
  19. Web site: Here. - Pier 24. Pier24.org. 22 September 2018.
  20. Web site: About Face - Pier 24. Pier24.org. 22 September 2018.
  21. Web site: John Simon Guggenheim Foundation - Henry Wessel. Gf.org. 22 September 2018.
  22. Web site: National Endowment for the arts : Annual Report 1975. Arts.gov. 22 September 2018.
  23. Web site: National Endowment for the arts : Annual Report 1977. Arts.gov. 22 September 2018.
  24. Web site: National Endowment for the arts : Annual Report 1978. Arts.gov. 22 September 2018.

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