Tag: Old SFAI

Baltz – Brief Read

Posted on Posted in A Symbol Life, book shelf, old bones, on photographersTagged 1 Comment

Views enlarge what they engage. Whenever primates look in one direction, they see two views, one through each eye. The camera blocks parts of the world; words the other.

“Untitled” Baltz : (1974 ) first published in  Image volume 17 number 10 June 1974 . George Eastman House. This was published the year before ‘New Topographics,’exhibit held at Eastman. In this short essay of 8 paragraphs Baltz provides summary estimates of “typical” industrial sites; where, why, how. Reading it all these years later, I don’t remember it from then, though I subscribed to Image, there is a desolate tone. And, the final paragraph does offer a (mild) condemnation, as well as an erroneous assumption about likely economic actions.

“Panegyric” Baltz. The praise is of Larry Sultan, from the “Larry Sultan” book. A brief, but strong statement of appreciation of Larry as the person. Recalling time with Larry, Henry Wessel, and Baltz playing racquetball; avoiding talk of their different work.

These are pieces of Lewis Baltz, discovered as I was looking for something else. I knew Larry – I went to school at SFAI in the same class as him, Mike and 6 other people.

I never knew Lewis Baltz, but feel I know much more about him now. We are lucky he left us so many words.

  • Sultan July 1946- December 2009  (aged 63) cancer (wife Kelly)
  • Baltz September 1945- November 2014 (aged 69) cancer & emphysema

ISBN-10: 1934105295 &  ISBN-10: 3735600697

Eat your vitamin A, C, D, exercise doesn’t prevent cancer.

Lewis Baltz (September 12, 1945 – November 22, 2014) was a visual artist and photographer who became an important figure in the New Topographics movement of the late 1970s.[2] His work has been published in a number of books, presented in numerous exhibitions, and appeared in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, Paris, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.[citation needed] He wrote for many journals, and contributed regularly to L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui.

Publications

  • Landscape: Theory, Lewis Baltz, Harry Callahan, Eliot Porter, Carol Digrappa and Robert Adams, 1980 ISBN 0-912810-27-0
  • The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California, Lewis Baltz and Adam Weinburg, 2001 ISBN 0-9630785-6-9
  • The Tract Houses: Die Siedlungshauser (English and German Edition), Lewis Baltz, 2005 ISBN 0-9703860-4-4
  • The Prototype Works, Lewis Baltz, 2010 ISBN 3-86521-763-X
  • Mario Pfeifer: Reconsidering The new Industrial Parks near Irvine, California by Lewis Baltz, 1974, Lewis Baltz, Mario Pfeifer, Vanessa Joan Mueller, 2011 ISBN 1-934105-29-5
  • Lewis Baltz: Candlestick Point, Lewis Baltz, 2011 ISBN 3-86930-109-0
  • Lewis Baltz: Rule Without Exception / Only Exceptions, Lewis Baltz, 2012 ISBN 3-86930-110-4
  • Lewis Baltz: Texts., Lewis Baltz, 2012 ISBN 3-86930-436-7
  • Lewis Baltz, Lewis Baltz, 2017 ISBN 3-95829-279-8

References