Gretchen Garner (December 27, 1939 – February 15, 2017) was an American art historian, curator, writer, teacher, and self-taught photographer.
Biography
Education Garner was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She enrolled at the University of Chicago in 1965 and received her BA degree in Art History. After graduating, Garner spent a year studying photography on her own with her father's 35mm camera. Between 1973 and 1975, Garner studied photography at the School of Art institute in Chicago where she took her MFA.
Career While working as a photographer, photo editor, and instructor Garner raised two children in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois. Garner worked as a press photographer at the Chicago Daily News. Garner taught fine arts photography and history of photography at such universities as Grand Valley State College in Allendale, Michigan; Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, and the University of Connecticut, where she also served as the Chair of the Art and Art History Department.
Later life and death During Garner's later life, she continued to write scholarly articles, exhibition catalogs and books. Her last book was Winold Reiss and the Cincinnati Union Terminal where Garner reawakens Reiss’ full-color images of the mosaic murals in the Cincinnati Union Terminal. In the 1980s, Garner was inspired by the countryside around Chicago and which inspired her to take up outdoor photography. She then travel around the USA and Europe for a decade. Some of the landscapes Garner portrayed included Denmark, Sweden and France. During the 1980s she also served as the Head, Department of Art at the University of Connecticut from 1989 to 1992 and served as a Professor there until 1994. From there, Garner transferred to Moore College of Art and Design to become an Academic Dean until 1997. Garner was an adjunct professor as well as visiting artist for The Ohio State University between 2003 and 2007. From 2007 to 2017 Garner resided in her residence in Columbus, Ohio until she died at the age of 77.
Contributions and influence
Feminist art history Garner's contribution to feminist art history is especially notable. Her exhibition Reclaiming Paradise: American Women Photograph the Land (1987) was widely popular, traveling to thirteen different location sites within two years. This catalog traces the lives of nineteenth-and twentieth-century women and their relationship with the landscape. Garner redressed the exclusion of women from the landscape canon throughout her writing. Her catalog for this exhibition became a primary source on women and modern American photography.
Contemporary landscape photography: "The New Metaphorics" In opposition to William Jenkins's New Topographics gambit, Garner advocated for a “New Metaphorics.” Garner, along with photographer and critic Deborah Bright, critiqued the work of the New Topographics as having a macho undertone. Garner's work showcased her own perspectives on documentary photography. The debate over documentary landscape photography remains an important component in contemporary landscape photography, but especially that of the 1970–80's.
Publications Disappearing Witness: Change in Twentieth-Century American Photography. Johns Hopkins Press, 2003.Baron, Neva Kathryn. “Disappearing Witness: Change in Twentieth-Century American Photography by Gretchen Garner (review).” Material Culture 38, no. 1 (2006): 98–100.
Winold Reiss and the Cincinnati Union Terminal Ohio University Press; 1st ed. (2016)Theresa Leininger-Miller. “Winold Reiss and the Cincinnati Union Terminal: Fanfare for the Common Man by Gretchen Garner (review)." Indiana Magazine of History 113, no. 2 (2017): 168–70. Six Ideas in Photography: A Celebration of Photography's Sesquicentennial, 1989. Landscapes 1981–1988, 1989. Reclaiming Paradise: American Women Photograph the Land, 1987.The Print Collector's Newsletter. “Reclaiming Paradise: American Women Photograph the Land by Tweed Museum of Art, Gretchen Garner (review).” The Print Collector's Newsletter 18, no. 3 (1987): 108. An Art History of Ephemera: Gretchen Garner's Catalog, Photographs, 1976–1978.
Photographic work "Vanitas" 1980. ""Portfolio '74" 1974. "Landscapes," 1990. "Jamaica."
Exhibitions +Place WorkLocationTimeImage House Gallery"Intimate Panoramas"Santa Fe, NMFebruary–March 2001Moore College of Art and DesignPhiladelphiaSeptember–October 1994Weir Farm National Historic SiteWilton, CTApril–May 1993Danforth Museum of Art Framingham, MAJanuary–February 1993Evanston(IL) Art Center, Dart Gallery ChicagoIthaca College Photography Gallery"Intimate Landscapes"Atrium Gallery, University of Connecticut Storrs, CTSeptember–October 1990Duluth (MN) Art InstituteJune 1989Grand Rapids Art Museum"Six Ideas in Photography: A Celebration of Photography's Sesquicentennial"February–March 1989Space Gallery, West Michigan University "Kalamazoo"February 1989Museum of Contemporary Photography"Birches"Chicago, ILSeptember–October 1988Memorial Union Gallery, Nevada State UniversityFargo, NDFebruary 1987Saint Paul (MN) AcademyJanuary 1987Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota "Reclaiming Paradise: American Women Photograph the Land"Duluth, MN1987Lincoln Gallery, Northern State CollegeAberdeen, SDOctober–November 1985Film in the Cities, St. Paul November 1985Krannert Art Museum, University of IllinoisChampaign, ILOctober 1985Ruth Volid Gallery Chicago, ILNovember 1984 – January 1985Chicago Center for Contemporary PhotographyDecember 1982Exposures Gallery Libertyville, ILFebruary, 1981Dart Gallery Chicago, ILDecember, 1982Hayden Gallery, MIT Cambridge, MAMay–June 1980Evanston (IL) Art CenterMarch–April 1980"Friends of Photography"Carmel, CASeptember–October 1979New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NMJune, 1979Augustana CollegeRock Island, IL January, 1979Lorado Taft in Illinois, traveling show for IL Arts CouncilIllinois1978–1982The Dark Room Chicago, ILApril, 1976ARC Gallery Chicago, ILDecember, 1975
References