Ray Metzker
Photo Synthesis is an exhibition of thirteen vintage prints that exemplify Ray Metzker's pursuit for abstraction in nature while embracing delicacy of detail. Throughout his prolific career, Ray Metzker never ceased to find visual pleasure in trees, whether it be among the hills of Tuscany or the streets of Philadelphia. This exhibition features a small 1962 Wisconsin winter scene, a unique Whimsy composite from 1974, a Pictus Interruptus from 1978, and his classic 1983 City Whispers in which a tree encroaches the intersection of light and shadow. In hindsight, this picture announced Ray's radical shift from cityscape to landscape that preoccupied him over the next decade.
Six of Metzker's street photography abastractions, from his classic 1957-1966 period, are given an in depth look.
The Museum of Modern Art has reinstalled its fourth-floor collection galleries with works exclusively from the 1960s. Interweaving works from all of MoMA’s curatorial departments the galleries proceed chronologically, with work installed by year. Among the works featured from 1966 is Ray Metzker's photographic composite Trolley Stop. Other featured artists include Richard Tuttle, Agnes Martin, Sigmar Polke, Vija Celmins, and Joseph Beuys.
Ray K. Metzker, a modernist photographer who called himself “an intellectual wanderer” and proved it over six decades of audacious experiment — he sometimes overlapped exposures to make a single picture from a roll of film — died in Philadelphia at age 83.
