The Sheldon Art Gallery Presents Photography Exhibit by Larry Fink, 2/18-5/21

The Sheldon Art Galleries presents Larry Fink: Attraction and Desire - 50 Years in Photography, February 18 - May 21, 2011 in the History of Jazz Gallery and Gallery of Photography. Please join us for an all-gallery opening reception on Friday, February 18 from 5 - 8 p.m.! Gallery hours are Tuesdays, Noon - 8 p.m.; Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, Noon - 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and one hour prior to Sheldon performances and during intermission. Admission is free. For more information on the exhibition visit the galleries' website at www.thesheldon.org/galleries.asp.

Larry Fink: Attraction and Desire - 50 Years in Photography, organized by the Sheldon Art Galleries in St. Louis, provides an overview of work by the internationally renowned photographer Larry Fink, and includes over 120 photographs spanning his 50-year career. Works from the series The Beatniks; Social Graces; Boxing; Somewhere There's Music; Runway; The Democrats, as well as intimate photographs of his home, family, travels and commissions are represented in this major exhibit. The exhibition is underwritten by Luxco, with additional support from Barbara and Arthur McDonnell.

Gallery Talk: Saturday, February 19, 11:00 a.m., Larry Fink will speak on his career in photography, Gallery of Photography, admission free.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1941, Larry Fink studied with Lisette Model and Alexei Brodovich. Having come of age in the beat generation, Fink has retained that sensibility. The images he creates with the camera are drawn from multilayered influences and are informed by a love of photography and a deep understanding and appreciation of the history of art. Though photographic influences, like Henri Cartier-Bresson, André Kertesz, Brassai, Robert Frank and his teacher, Lisette Model, played a role in the formation of Fink's early vision, sparks of Goya, Daumier, and George Grosz, the atmosphere of a Caravaggio and the psychology of a Rembrandt, can also be found in his luminous and theatrical works.

In the early years of his career, Fink photographed on the streets of New York, Las Vegas, London, and Paris, and in dark, evocative, 35-millimeter camera images, provides us with a view of how humanity negotiates a terrain of urban grit. In the mid-1970s, Fink began photographing at museum galas, art openings and other events, employing a signature lighting style that heightened the human and psychological and drama of the moment. In 1980, he moved to rurAl Martin's Creek, Pennsylvania where country events, his neighbors and his family were his subjects. He continues to photograph, and with a passionate eye has taken on commissions for the Ministry of Culture of Matosinhos, Portugal; the Cleveland Clinic; and Vanity Fair Magazine to cover the Presidential primaries, among other subjects.

Fink is considered one of the modern masters of photography. He has had one man shows at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Art; the Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium; and the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, among others. In addition to two John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships in 1976 and 1979, and two National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Photography Fellowships in 1978 and 1986, Fink was awarded an honorary doctorate from the College for Creative Studies, College of Art and Design, Detroit in 2002. His photographic work is also the focus of several monographs, including Social Graces (1984 and 2001); Boxing (1997); Runway (2000); Larry Fink (2005); and Somewhere There's Music (2006) and forthcoming, The Vanities: Hollywood Parties from 2000 to 2009 (2011). His works are included in numerous important public collections including Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Museum of Fine Art, Boston; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Texas; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Smithsonian Museum, Washington, D.C.; Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi, Belgium. In addition to making a successful living as an artist and commercial photographer, Fink is also an influential educator. He has taught at the Yale University School of Art, New Haven; Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture, New York; Parsons School of Design, New York; and Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, and for the last 16 years as a professor of photography at Bard College. A catalogue, published by the Sheldon Art Galleries , accompanies the exhibition.

The not-for profit Sheldon Art Galleries exhibits works by local, national, and International Artists in all media. Over 6,000 square feet of the galleries' spaces on the 2nd floor are permanently devoted to rotating exhibits of photography, architecture, jazz art and history, and children's art. A sculpture garden, seen from both the atrium lobby and the connecting glass bridge, features periodic rotations and installations, and the Nancy Spirtas Kranzberg Gallery on the lower level features art of all media. The Sheldon actively supports the work of St. Louis artists in all mediums and features a dedicatEd Gallery with museum-quality exhibits by St. Louis artists, past and present.

Financial Assistance for this project has been provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency. Support is provided by the Regional Arts Commission and the Arts and Education Council.