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Sommer, Frederick (Artist/Photographer); Aldrich, Stephen & Naef, Winston (Contributors) : Frederick Sommer: "poetry And Logic" And "the Poetic Logic Of Art And Aesthetics"

The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, 1994

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in No Dust Jacket, As Issued. 6 pages. Rare Frederick Sommer collectible set. Fine copies of "Poetry And Logic" Exhibition Catalog and "The Poetic Logic of Art And Aesthetics", both signed by Frederick Sommer. "Poetry And Logic": Exhibition Catalog. The first and only edition. Published in a small and limited print run as a softcover original only. Published on the occasion of the landmark exhibition of the same name held at The Getty Museum Los Angeles in 1994-1995. Presents Frederick Sommer's "Poetry And Logic". A sequence of haunting animal "still-life" carcasses that perfectly capture the artist/photographer's singular aesthetic. Accompanied by an illuminating Essay by Winston Naef, Curator of Photography. "The Poetic Logic of Art And Aesthetics": The first and only edition. The pamphlet was self-published in 1972 as a softcover original only. Contains the full text of what is, in effect, his Artistic Manifesto, supplemented with the eulogy, "Words Spoken In Memory of Richard Nickell At A Gathering of His Friends". Both texts are unsurpassed in the history of photography in their delineation of what art photography can and should be. For Frederick Sommer, all true art, especially what he believed the mission and future of photography to be, is direct experience mediated by both thinking ("logic") and feeling ("poetry"). It is never just about beauty, technique, or even mastery. Some artists tend to emphasize thinking at the expense of feeling (like, for example, many Conceptual artists). Others emphasize feeling at the expense of thinking (like far too many landscape photographers). The task is to achieve a delicate balance between the two, which has been Sommer's own lifelong quest. Frederick Sommer initially worked for his architect father. He earned his MFA at Cornell University, moved to Arizona, and restlessly pursued various creative activities: Photography, drawing, collage, and painting. He cultivated deep friendships with Edward Weston, Charles Sheeler, Max Ernst, and Aaron Siskind. Inspired by landscape, the human figure, and music, Sommer was profoundly intrigued with the laws of Nature, specifically death, decay, and regeneration, which he explored in photographs of animal carcasses merging with the desert. Sommer deserves fuller mainstream recognition for the mysterious yet crystalline precision of his work, his uncanny ability to discern - to see through - things, and thereby re-define photographic art as a process of intellectual understanding and emotional response. An absolute "must-have" collectible, not just memorabilia, set for Frederick Sommer collectors. These copies of "Poetry And Logic" Exhibition Catalog and "The Poetic Logic of Art And Aesthetics" Pamphlet are both very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen by Frederick Sommer. They are signed directly on the pages themselves, not on a tipped-in page. These titles are late-modern classics. As far as we know, this is the only such signed set available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, pristine beauties. A rare signed set thus. 4 plates. One of the greatest artist/photographers of the 20th century. A fine collectible set. (SEE ALSO OTHER FREDERICK SOMMER TITLE IN OUR CATALOG).

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