Pedro E. Guerrero: Photographs of Modern Life, the first extensive exhibition of Guerrero’s
midcentury modernist work to be shown in the East, is coming to the Landis
Gores Pavilion, in New Canaan, Connecticut, a joint presentation of the Julius
Shulman Institute at Woodbury University and the New Canaan Historical Society. The exhibit, curated by Emily Bills and
Anthony Fontenot, opens June 9. At the
opening reception, Bills, the Managing Director of the Shulman Institute will present
the 2012 Julius Shulman Institute Excellence in Photography Award to Guerrero’s
widow, Dixie Guerrero. Other members of
the Guerrero family will be in attendance for the presentation.
Established by architectural
photographer Julius Shulman in 1995, the Shulman Institute provides programs
that promote the understanding of architecture and design, especially as
interpreted by the art of photography. The New Canaan Historical Society, which
operates the newly restored Gores Pavilion for the Arts, will host the event
and exhibit. The exhibit will run
through November 1, 2013.
As
a young art student, Guerrero was hired by Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West.
He became Wright’s official photographer and a trusted friend. Guerrero’s approach was to treat architecture
as sculpture. Milwaukee art critic James
Auer has written “If there is such a thing as organic photography, then
Guerrero practices it in these historically invaluable images. The compositions grow naturally out of their
circumstances. They have a simple
elegance that belies the skill that went into their making.”
Guerrero, a long-time
New Canaan resident, spent much of his career photographing Wright’s work, and later the art of Alexander
Calder and Louise Nevelson. But this
little-known aspect of his work, in which he documented many of the most iconic
architects of the midcentury era, is the focus of this exhibit. Guerrero photographed a wide range of New
Canaan’s modern houses—including those designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip
Johnson, and Edward Durrell Stone. His
photographs of Marcel Breuer’s influential first house in New Canaan are among
his best-known works. One iconic shot
captures the enormous cantilevered deck; another (from the same shoot) shows
the Breuers sitting at their outdoor table in that space. Prints of Wright’s Taliesin West, Eero Saarinen’s
Ingalls Rink at Yale, Joseph Salerno’s United Church of Rowayton, and John
Black Lee’s Day House are some of the works to be exhibited at the Gores
Pavilion. Guerrero also photographed the
Gores Pavilion when it was the Irwin Pool House, so his vintage photos of the
exhibit building itself will be on display.
The photographs, which
are on loan from Edward Cella Art + Architecture, were first shown in the original
exhibit Pedro E. Guerrero: Photographs of
Modern Life at the Julius Shulman Institute at the School of Architecture,
Woodbury University. At the Gores
Pavilion, the installation is overseen by Dianne Pierce, a design and
decorative arts historian who teaches at Parsons and SUNY New Paltz.
Accompanying the
Guerrero exhibit in second gallery will be an exhibit showing the works and
history of the modern movement in New Canaan.
This exhibit, originally curated by Alan Goldberg, features the Harvard
Five and the architects who followed them to New Canaan.
The Gores Pavilion was
recently restored by The New Canaan Historical Society, which also operates it.
The restoration won preservation honors this year from The Connecticut Trust
for Historic Preservation.
The Guerrero exhibition
will run from June 9 to November 1, 2013.
Hours for the exhibit are Thursday, Friday, Saturday and
Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and by appointment. Suggested
donation fee: $5 per person. The Gores Pavilion is in Irwin Park on Weed
Street in New Canaan, Connecticut. For
more information, please contact The New Canaan Historical Society at 203 966
1776 or see their website, nchistory.org.
