November 17, 2017 – Art Blart _ art and cultural memory archive

Exhibition dates: 21st October – 30th November 2017

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
Vinegar Hill, New York
1985
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

These remind me very strongly of the 1970s urban Americana colour work of Stephen Shore. Most of them are successful, well seen, well photographed colour images that evince a certain period in the American cultural landscape.

When they work – as in the formal Vinegar Hill, New York (1985, above) or the more abstract Vinegar Hill, New York (1985, below); the colourful, planar Varick Street, New York (1984); the duo-chromatic L.B. Oil, New York (1984); the magnificently shadowed, geometric Halsted Street, Chicago (1978); and my particular favourite (because of the light), Under the EL, Chicago (1978) – they work superbly. When they don’t work – as in Blankets, New York (1986) or Barbers, New York (1985) – they feel a bit flat.

It’s so hard to put a body of photographs together where each image is strong (but not necessarily the same) as the next and they form a holistic group. Most photographers can put together four images well enough, but the skill is to be able to narrativise a larger body of work, and then do that over a longer period of time. I believe that over the lifetime of a photographic artist, you can count on the fingers of two hands the truly memorable images they will make, if they are lucky. Other images are valuable in their own right… while others should be quietly singed.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

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Many thankx to the Mike and Joseph Bellows Gallery for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
Vinegar Hill, New York
1985
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
Varick Street, New York
1984
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
Halsted Street, Chicago
1978
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
L.B. Oil, New York
1984
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
Spiral Fire Escape, Chicago
1975
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
No Left, Vinegar Hill
1988
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
Dave’s Restaurant, New York
1984
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
EL Platform, Chicago
1978
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
Bee Gee’s, New York
1984
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
Fort Dearborn Coffee, Chicago
1977
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
East Chicago
1977
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

Wayne Sorce (American, b. 1946)
Chock Full of Nuts, New York
1984
Digital chromogenic print
20 x 24 inches

Joseph Bellows Gallery is pleased to announce its upcoming solo exhibition,Wayne Sorce: Urban Color. The exhibition will open on October 21st and continue through November 30th, 2017. In conjunction with Sorce’s exhibition will be a group show relating to the city as subject.

Urban Color will present a remarkable selection Sorce’s large-scale colour photographs of urban environments taken in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s in both Chicago and New York City. His urban landscapes describe with a formal exactitude, the light, structures, and palette of these cities within a certain era. For Sorce, the urban landscape is both still and transitory; people appear in the photographs as both inhabitants of the city, as well as sculptural forms relating to a larger composed scene.

Sorce’s photographs are held within the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the George Eastman Museum, the Armand Hammer Museum of Art, National Museum of American Art, at the Smithsonian Institution, and the Museum of Modern Art. Complementing Sorce’s exhibition will be a collection of photographs by his contemporaries that describe the city as subject. Work by Bob Thall, George Tice, Bevan Davies, Grant Mudford, and others will be included.

Press release from the Joseph Bellows Gallery