Recently discovered color images of California and Mexico taken during the 1940s and 1950s by the late visionary photographer Paul Outerbridge, who was considered “a master of color photography,” will be exhibited at the Central Library’s First Floor Galleries, 630 W. Fifth St., downtown, from March 28 through June 28.
The exhibition is curated by William A. Ewing, Graham Howe, and Phillip Prodger and is circulated by Curatorial Assistance, Pasadena.
Outerbridge, who died in 1958, built his reputation in the early 1920s in New York and Paris making elegant black and white photo abstractions primarily of nudes and still lifes that rivaled those of his peers, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Edward Weston. In the 1930s, Outerbridge mastered the exquisite tri-carbro-color print process and went on to make some of the most important color photographs in art and advertising of that time.
Moving to California in 1943 and taking up residence in Laguna Beach, Outerbridge made his last important body of work throughout California and Mexico. Between 1948 and until his death in 1958 he codified a new language in color photographs that anticipated the work of William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, Joel Sternfeld and others known for their "New Color" work in the 1970s.
“The curious position of prosperous American tourists amid the daily poverty experienced by some Mexicans is one of the recurring themes in the work, but with Outerbridge there is no political polemic,” says co-curator Phillip Prodger. “Outerbridge was thinking of his photographs as jig-saw puzzles made up of many different highly-colored pieces, each placed with meticulous care.”
Among Outerbridge’s subjects are carnival carriages with passengers dressed and headed for a grand party; a group of fashionable men relaxing in an outdoor hotel lobby drinking Coke and beer while a small orchestra plays; a girl in a lime-green dress and white sweater walking past a gas station whose painted-red details add a vibrant flourish to the scene.
The Paul Outerbridge: New color Photographs from Mexico and California, 1948-1955 exhibit is free and open to the public during library hours: Monday through Thursday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sunday: 1 to 5 p.m. The library is closed on holidays. For more information, visit www.lapl.org/events or call (213) 228-7500.
This exhibit is sponsored by Farmers Insurance Group and made possible by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. To support the Los Angeles Public Library, call
(213) 228-7500 or visit www.lfla.org.
The Los Angeles Public Library serves the largest urban population of any library in the country. Its Central Library, 71 branch libraries, more than six million books and state-of-the-art technology provide everyone with free and easy access to information and the opportunity for life-long learning.
The Central Library is located in Council District 9, represented by Councilmember Jan Perry.
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