Museum exhibits architectural photography of Rome by Brooke
An exhibition of 200 timeless images by renowned architectural photographer
Steven Brooke will be on display at the Carlos Museum Nov. 9-Jan. 20 in
an exhibition titled "Steven Brooke: Views from Rome."
Following in the tradition of viewpainters (vedutisti) who recorded Rome
for their time, Brooke's work is the first of its kind on Rome in more than
100 years and includes the most significant sites of ancient, Christian
and modern Roman architecture.
The work was produced during Brooke's tenure as a fellow at the American
Academy in Rome. Inspired by 17th- and 18th-century Dutch and Italian vedutisti,
Brooke emulates rather than imitates his artistic predecessors. His goal
is to acknowledge the vedute tradition while reshaping and extending it
to accommodate the qualities of the photographer's art.
The photographs that comprise his "Views of Rome" transcend the
experience of any particular moment. Like the Rome of Giovanni Battista
Piranesi, the 18th-century viewpainter, Brooke's Rome is ultimately a Rome
of the imagination. His monochromes exhibit an enchantment with the past
while providing documentation of late 20th century Rome.
Organized by the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, Fla., "Steven Brooke:
Views of Rome" has been exhibited in Rome and numerous museums in North
America.
The exhibition is accompanied by Brooke's book Views of Rome, published
in 1995 by Rizzoli. The book features essays, including a contribution by
Bonna Wescoat, faculty curator of Classical Art at the Carlos Museum and
assistant professor of art history at Emory, and detailed captions that
provide the history, location and often directions to each of the 200 sites,
as well as reproductions of engravings and drawings of 17th- and 18th-century
vedutisti.
Call 727-2251 for additional information.
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