b. Wichita Falls, TX 1942
Frank Gohlke is known for his large format landscape photographs depicting the monumental and expansive in multiple geographical ranges.
The vicissitude of a man-altered landscape is of central interest to Gohlke, which is most apparent in his series Landscapes (1969-79) and Grain Elevators (1973-77), revealing human habitation and activity–freeway embankments, homemade trailers, grain elevators, and silos–that are latent in accordance with its pastoral surroundings.
Gohlke is also concerned with the sublime in geographic phenomena such as his Mt. St. Helens (1981-90) project that document the after-effects of the natural landscape following the 1979 tornado that wrecked his hometown. Gohlke thus considers these sites of transformation to reflect the dynamic and complex relationship between humans and their cultural geography.
Education
1964 | B.A. in English Literature at the University of Texas, Austin, Texas |
1964-66 | M.A. in English Literature at Yale University, New Haven |
Teaching
2007- | Laureate Professor of Photography at the University of Arizona and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Creative Photography, both in Tucson, AZ. |
1994-2007 | Art Institute of Boston at Lesley College, The School of Museum of Fine Arts Boston. The Massachusetts College of Art |
1989-94 | The Massachusetts College of Art |
1968-71 | Middlebury College, Vermont. Establishes the school's first photography program. |
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2015 | Work in Photography at MoMA: 1960 to Now, New York, NY |
2013 | American Vesuvius: The Aftermath of Mount St. Helens, The Cleveland Museum of Art, OH |
2012 | Mount St. Helens, Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA |
One Thing and Another, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, NY | |
2009 | Early Landscapes: 1968-1978, Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, CA |
Accommodating Nature: The Photographs of Frank Gohlke, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. | |
2008 | Where We Live: Queens, New York 2003-2004, The Howard Greenberg Gallery, NYC |
2007 | Accommodating Nature: The Photographs of Frank Gohlke, The Amon Carter Museum, Texas. Traveling to The Addison Gallery of American Art, The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and the Center for Creative Photography |
2005 | Mount St. Helens: Photographs by Frank Gohlke, Museum of Modern Art, NYC |
2005 | The Altered Landscape, Howard Greenberg Gallery, NYC |
1999 | The Intimate and the Infinite: Waterscapes by Frank Gohlke and Stuart Klipper, Dorsky Gallery, NYC. |
1997 | Making Waves: The Sudbury River, New England Science Center, Worcester, Massachusetts, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon |
1995 | On Edge: Landscapes 1972-1990, Bonni Benrubi Gallery, NYC |
Conversations in the Park, Reggio Emilia, Italy | |
1994 | Mt. St. Helens, Florida International University, Miami |
1993 | Mt. St. Helens as a Public Landscape, Gallery of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR |
Living Water: Photographs of the Sudbury River by Frank Gohlke, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA | |
1992 | Franklin Parrasch Gallery, NYC |
1989 | Two Days in Louisiana, (with Gregory Conniff), Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI |
1988 | Landscapes from the Middle of the World: Photographs 1972-1987, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL |
1983 | Mt. St. Helens: Work in Progress, Daniel Wolf Gallery, New York, NY |
Mt. St. Helens: Work in Progress, MoMA, New York, NY | |
1981 | Film in the Cities Gallery, St. Paul, MN |
1980 | University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
1978 | Grain Elevators, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY |
1975 | Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Ft. Worth, TX |
Light Gallery, New York | |
1974 | Art Institute of Chicago (with Edward Ranney) |
Selected Group Exhibitions
2015 | Land Lines, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, NY |
2012 | America in View: Landscape Photography 1865 to Now, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, RI |
2011 | New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, Landesgalerie Linz, Austria |
Wall Works, DeCorvova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA | |
Reinstallation of Edward Steichen Photography Galleries, Museum of Modern Art, New York | |
La Morada del Hombre (The Dwelling Life of Man), Foto Calectania Foundation, Barcelona, Spain | |
Creative Continuum: The History of the Center of Creative Photography, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ | |
The Altered Landscape: Photographs of a Changing Environment, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV | |
2010 | New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA |
Exposing Time, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ | |
On the Road: A Legacy of Walker Evans, Robert Lehman Art Center at Brooks School, North Andover, MA | |
The City Proper, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles | |
2009 | New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art, CA |
Photocartographies: Tattered Fragments of the Map, g727, Los Angeles | |
Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the West, Museum of Modern Art, New York | |
Reality Revisited: Photography from the Moderna Museet Collection, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden | |
Locating Landscape: New Strategies, New Technologies, Sam Lee Gallery, Los Angeles | |
2004 | Six from the 70’s, Howard Greenberg Gallery, NYC |
2002 | Seen: Photographs from The George Gund Foundation Collection, The Cleveland Museum of Art, OH |
Photographers, Writers, and the American Scene, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego | |
1999 | Pictures of Europe, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA |
1998 | Expanded Visions: the Panoramic Photograph, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA |
1995 | From Icon to Irony: German and American Industrial Photography, Boston University Art Gallery, Boston |
1994 | Recent Acquisitions, The National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. |
Dialogues with Photography: The Monson Collection, The Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle | |
1993 | Contemporary American Photography, Jingshan Tushuguan, Guangzhou, China |
1992 | More Than One Photography, MoMA, NYC |
1989 | Photography Now, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England |
1988 | Tradition and Change: Contemporary American Landscape Photography, Houston Center for Photography, TX |
The Second Israeli Photography Biennial, Mishkan Le'Omanut, Museum of Art, Ein Harod, Israel | |
1987 | American Dreams, Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain |
1985 | Variance, MoMA, NYC; Paris-New York-Tokyo, Tsukuba Museum of Photography, Tsukuba, Japan; Miyagi Museum of Art, Japan |
1983 | An Open Land: Photographs of the Midwest 1852-1982, Art Institute of Chicago |
1981 | Photography: A Sense of Order, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, PA |
American Landscapes, MoMA, New York | |
1979 | Photographers of the 70's, Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
1978 | Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960, MoMA, New York |
1975 | New Topographics, International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, NY |
Bibliography
Landscapes from the Middle of the World: Photographs 1972-1987. (Untitled 46, The Friends of Photography, San Francisco, and Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, 1988). Introduction by Ben Lifson. | |
Paysages Photographies. Editions Hazan, Paris, 1989, pp. 581-604 (Final report of la Mission Photographique de la DATAR). | |
Frank Gohlke. Measure of Emptiness: Grain Elevators in the American Landscape (Baltimore, 1992). With a concluding essay by John C. Hudson. | |
The Sudbury River: A Celebration. DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park and The Sudbury Valley Trustees, Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1993. | |
Linea di Confine della Provincia di Reggio Emilia, Laboratorio di Fotografia 7: Frank Gohlke, Parco del Gigante. Comune di Rubiera and Provincia di Reggio Emilia, Rubiera, Italy, 1995. | |
Annual Report of the George Gund Foundation. Cleveland, Ohio, 1998 | |
The Intimate and the Infinite: Waterscapes by Frank Gohlke and Stuart Klipper. New York City, 1999. | |
Accommodating Nature: The Photographs of Frank Gohlke, The Center for American Places, 2007 | |
Thoughts on Landscape: Collected Writings and Interviews. Holart Books, Tucson, AZ, 2009 |
Selected Public Collections
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY | |
Art Institute of Chicago | |
Australian National Gallery, Canberra | |
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris | |
Victoria and Albert Museum, London | |
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada | |
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN | |
Cleveland Museum of Art | |
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY | |
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA | |
Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI | |
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, VT | |
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden |
Awards and Honors
2013 | Fulbright Scholar Grant | |
1999-2000 | National Millennium Survey | |
1983 | McKnight Foundation/Film in the Cities Photography Fellowship | |
1979-80 | Bush Foundation Artist's Fellowship | |
1986-87 | National Endowment for the Arts | |
1984-85 | Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships | |
1977-78 | National Endowment for the Arts | |
1975-76 | Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships |