Robert Adams: 27 Roads

The first exhibition to focus on the road, a central motif in the artist’s long career.

Robert Adams: 27 Roads, a tightly-focused group of photographs spanning almost five decades, will be on view at Fraenkel Gallery from September 6 through October 20, 2018. The road has been a central motif in the work of Robert Adams since the beginning of his life as a photographer, and 27 Roads is the first exhibition to focus on this fundamental aspect of his work.

Alameda Avenue, Denver, 1971
gelatin silver print, 13 x 11 inches (mount) [33 x 27.9 cm]
Firebreak above East Highlands, California, 1982
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]

The exhibition features photographs from Adams’ most well-known and treasured series dating from 1968 to 2013, including The New West, Denver, Prairie, From the Missouri West, California, Listening to the River, and An Old Forest Road. Over many years of exploring this theme, Adams has been drawn to writers who contemplate the symbolism of the road, and the potential of any neglected dirt road or byway to be a place of value.

Eucalyptus alley, Riverside, California, 1978
gelatin silver print, 14 x 11 inches (sheet) [35.6 x 27.9 cm]

27 Roads will be accompanied by a new, exquisitely printed hardcover catalogue, to be distributed by Artbook/D.A.P. In the book Adams writes, “Roads can still be beautiful. Occasionally they appear like a perfect knife slicing through a perfect apple, the better to show that two halves are one.”

In the fall of 2019, Adams will be the subject of the major traveling retrospective American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams, 1965–2015, organized by The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Through July 29, 2018, The Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris is spotlighting Adams’ work in the monographic exhibition, Robert Adams: Our Lives and Our Children.

Works on View

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