June 15–August 20, 2017
Images of New Haven by photographers Jim Goldberg and Donovan Wylie
The Yale University Art Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Candy/A Good and Spacious Land, an exhibition of new work by photographers Jim Goldberg and Donovan Wylie that celebrates the publication of a two-volume set of photo books by the same title. The exhibition and publication grew out of time that the artists spent in New Haven beginning in 2013 as Happy and Bob Doran Artists in Residence at the Gallery. While many artists use the Doran residency as an opportunity to explore the Gallery’s collections in depth and to access the resources of the University at large, Goldberg and Wylie opted instead to focus on the city of New Haven—its history and its unique character. The resulting images offer two complementary visions of the city: Goldberg, a New Haven native, captures the people and personal stories of his hometown, while the Northern Ireland–born Wylie examines New Haven through the framework of its highway infrastructure.
For Goldberg, who was born and raised in New Haven, the 2013 residency was a return to the place he had left four decades before. Taking memory and autobiography as a springboard, his project Candy explores New Haven from the point of view of someone seeing a familiar city with fresh eyes, and he created new work in his signature mode of intimate, informal portraits presented alongside the subjects’ own words. He combines this work with images and material from his childhood in the 1950s and 1960s, the era of Mayor Richard Lee, urban “renewal,” and the promotion of New Haven as a Model City. After delving into his own story, Goldberg mines the lives of two other New Haven natives who stayed in the city: Germano Kimbro, the child of a New Haven Black Panther, and Joseph Taylor, a lifelong resident and avid collector of New Haven imagery.
Wylie’s A Good and Spacious Land, by contrast, is a look at the city from an outsider’s point of view. His encounter with New Haven coincided with the reconstruction of Interstates 95 and 91 and the dramatic merge where the two come together, an enormous feat of engineering that appealed to his artistic sensibility. The omnipresent roadways in Wylie’s images suggest mobility and speed, a way in and out, and the possibility of passing over and through the city; the construction-in-progress that he captures further implies an ongoing faith in the promise that mobility holds. But Wylie’s roadways also frame the urban and natural landscape between and beneath the highways, highlighting the people and the human habitat that lie in the shadow of the massive transportation structure.
“Think of New Haven and Yale University looms large, yet the institution features only intermittently in the collective portrait of the city that emerges in Candy/A Good and Spacious Land,” states Pamela Franks, Senior Deputy Director and the Seymour H. Knox, Jr., Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Gallery. “The exhibition and publication focus much more on the aspects of the city that are most often overshadowed by Yale, really attending to the people and place of New Haven. And whereas Yale University appears in sporadic but pointed references in Goldberg’s and Wylie’s works, the Gallery appears not at all. Yet the spirit of what this museum strives to be infuses the entire project,” she continues. “The Gallery prides itself on its engagement with artists and is equally committed to serving the University and the broader public, building community around our mission of providing free access to a world-class art collection as well as opportunities for learning with and from each other.”
On View
June 15–August 20, 2017
Related Publication
Candy/A Good and Spacious Land
Jim Goldberg and Donovan Wylie, with text by Christopher Klatell and Laura Wexler and an introduction by Pamela Franks
In this two-volume set, two artists and two writers explore the concept of the “model city” through the lens of New Haven, Connecticut. The collaboration grew out of a 2013 joint residency at the Yale University Art Gallery by photographers Jim Goldberg and Donovan Wylie. In Candy, Goldberg, a New Haven native, uses Super 8 film stills, images of New Haven’s urban landscape, annotated Polaroid portraits, and collaged archival materials to create a photo-novel about the trajectory of 20th-century American cities. A Good and Spacious Land, with photographs by Irish-born Wylie, chronicles the changes to New Haven’s topography during the construction of a massive highway interchange, offering connections between a contemporary American interpretation of the “Promised Land” and the underlying biblical narrative. Each volume includes text by Christopher Klatell woven throughout the images and a concluding essay by Laura Wexler that reflects on the photographs’ symbolism, social import, and historical contexts. Candy/A Good and Spacious Land showcases two gifted and renowned photographers branching out in new formal, narrative, and conceptual directions.
Hardcover set with slipcase / 372 pages / 133/8 × 103/4 inches / 225 color illustrations / Distributed by Yale University Press / Available June 2017 / Price: $100
Related Programs
Conversations
Thursday, June 15, 5:30 pm
“Imaging New Haven: Candy/A Good and Spacious Land”
Jim Goldberg and Donovan Wylie, photographers; Christopher Klatell, j.d. 1999, writer and attorney; and Laura Wexler, Professor of American Studies, of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and of Film and Media Studies, Yale University
Book signing to follow. Offered in conjunction with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Generously sponsored by the Martin A. Ryerson Fund
Friday, June 16, 1:30 pm
“Imaging New Haven: Engaging the City”
Nicholas Dawidoff, writer; Lisa Kereszi, photographer and Critic and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Yale University School of Art; and Elihu Rubin, Associate Professor, Yale School of Architecture; with Pamela Franks, Senior Deputy Director and the Seymour H. Knox, Jr., Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Yale University Art Gallery
Offered in conjunction with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Generously sponsored by the Martin A. Ryerson Fund
All programs are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. For more detailed programming information, visit artgallery.yale.edu/calendar.
Exhibition Credits
Exhibition and publication organized by Pamela Franks, Senior Deputy Director and the Seymour H. Knox, Jr., Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Judy Ditner, the Richard Benson Assistant Curator of Photography and Digital Media. Made possible by the Happy and Bob Doran Artist-in- Residence Fund and the Janet and Simeon Braguin Fund.