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. His work frequently focused on large economic systems, or "the imaginary and material geographies of the advanced capitalist world."

He received fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Getty Research Institute, Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Atelier Calder 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. He began making art in the early 1970s, staging performances, building installations, and producing photo series. Sekula practiced what he called "critical realism", informed by Marxist thought, documentary photography, and conceptual art.

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).

With his work Aereospace Folktales (1973), he began mixing his photographic series with long texts, a form for which he would be particularly well-known. Fish Story (1995) explores the world maritime and forms the basis for much of The Forgotten Space.

He served on the faculty of the Photography and Media Program at the California Institute of the Arts.

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

Books

• Photography Against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works 1973–1983 (1984).
• Fish Story (1995).
• Dead Letter Office (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 Allan Sekula. Edited by Edward Dimendberg, with contributions by Louis Adamic, James Baker, Laura Diamond Dixit, Anthony Hernandez, Karin Apollonia Müller, Leonard Nadel, Allan Sekula, and Billy Woodberry.

Films

• A Short Film for Laos (2006).
• The Forgotten Space (2010).

Awards

• 1977: Art Critic’s Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts.
• 1978: Artist’s Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts.
• 1980: Art Critic’s Fellowship., National Endowment for the Arts.
• 1982: Art Critic’s Fellowship, Ohio Arts Council.
• 1984: Photographer’s Fellowship, Ohio Arts Council.
• 1986: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
• 1999 - 2002: Research Grant, Getty Research Institute / J. Paul Getty Trust.
• 2007: USA Broad Fellow and granted $50,000 by United States Artists.
• Fellowship from the Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD).
• Fellowship from the Atelier Calder.

Exhibitions

2

Collections (selected)

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, California
• National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
• Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California
• Pompidou Center, Paris, France
• San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California
• San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California
• 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, France
• Getty Research Institute, Resource Collections, Los Angeles, California
• Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
• Museé des Beaux Arts et de la Dentelle, Calais, France
• Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Castilla y León, Spain

External links

• Colloquium on Allan Sekula at the Centre Pompidou (Paris) hosted by Marie Muracciole June 28, 2013
• Allan Sekula represented by fr, Paris
• Allan Sekula represented by Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, California
• 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's profile at Kadist Art Foundation
• Allan Sekula Kapsul Image Collection
• Allan Sekula at the Internet Movie Database