Allan Sekula

Allan Sekula (January 15, 1951 – August 10, 2013) was an American photographer, writer, filmmaker, theorist and critic. From 1985 until his death in 2013, he taught at California Institute of the Arts.^[1] His work frequently focused on large economic systems, or "the imaginary and material geographies of the advanced capitalist world."^[2]

He received fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Getty Research Institute, Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Atelier Calder^[3] and was named a 2007 USA Broad Fellow.

Life and work

Sekula was born in 1951 in Erie, Pennsylvania, of Polish and English descent. His family moved to San Pedro, California in the early 1960s.^[1] He graduated with his MFA from the University of California, San Diego, in 1974, after having obtained his BA in biology from the same institution.^[4]

Sekula's principal medium was photography, which he employed to create exhibitions, books and films. His secondary medium was the written word, employing essays and other critical texts in concert with images to create a multi-level critique of contemporary late capitalism. His works make critical contributions on questions of social reality and globalization, and focus on what he described as "the imaginary and material geographies of the advanced capitalist world". He was a film/video-maker, frequently collaborating with film theorist Noël Burch on projects such as The Reagan Tapes (1984) (with regard to Ronald Reagan), and The Forgotten Space (2010).^[5]

He served on the faculty of the Photography and Media Program at the California Institute of the Arts.^[6]

Sekula died on August 10, 2013, aged 62, following a long struggle with gastric-esophageal cancer.^[4]

Books

• Photography Against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works 1973–1983 (1984).
• Fish Story (1995).
  • London: Mack, 2018. ISBN 978-1-912339-04-4. With a new introduction by Laleh Khalili.
• Dead Letter Office (1997).
• Geography Lesson: Canadian Notes (1997).
• Seemannsgarn (2002).
• Titanic's Wake (2003).
• Performance under Working Conditions (2003).
• A Dialogue with Allan Sekula (2005).
• Facing the Music: Documenting Walt Disney Hall and the Redevelopment of Downtown Los Angeles. East of Borneo Books, 2015. ISBN 978-0692312445. A project by Sekula. Edited by Edward Dimendberg, with contributions by Sekula, Louis Adamic, James Baker, Laura Diamond Dixit, Anthony Hernandez, Karin Apollonia Müller, Leonard Nadel, and Billy Woodberry.

Films

• A Short Film for Laos (2006)^[7]
• The Forgotten Space (2010)

Awards

• 1977: Art Critic's Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts^[3]
• 1978: Artist's Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts^[3]
• 1980: Art Critic's Fellowship., National Endowment for the Arts^[3]
• 1986: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation^[8]
• 1999 - 2002: Research Grant, Getty Research Institute / J. Paul Getty Trust^[3]
• 2007: USA Broad Fellow and granted $50,000 by United States Artists^{[citation needed]}
• Fellowship from the Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)^[3]
• Fellowship from the Atelier Calder^[3]

Exhibitions

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Collections

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Sekula's work is held in the following public collections:

• Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Vienna, Austria
• Museo de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
• Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
• Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
• National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
• Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio
• Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA
• Pompidou Center, Paris
• San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
• San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA
• Whitney Museum, New York
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
• ARCO Foundation, Madrid, Spain
• Centro de Estudos Fotograficos, Vigo, Spain
• Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany
• Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris
• Getty Research Institute, Resource Collections, Los Angeles, CA
• Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
• Museé des Beaux Arts et de la Dentelle, Calais, France
• Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Castilla y León, Spain^[11]

See also

• Allan Sekula Library at the Clark Art Institute

References

External links

• Ben Lerner on Sekula in Frieze
• Colloquium on Allan Sekula Archived 2013-09-26 at the Wayback Machine at the Centre Pompidou (Paris) hosted by Marie Muracciole June 28, 2013
• Allan Sekula represented by Galerie Michel Rein [fr], Paris
• Allan Sekula represented by Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
• Interview with Allan Sekula about the relationship between art and photography, about artistic activism, the role of the artist in the public sphere and "Waiting for Tear Gas" (2011).
• Allan Sekula Kapsul Image Collection
• Allan Sekula at IMDb