Sprengel Museum, Hannover
2021–2022
November 6, 2021–February 13, 2022 The Sprengel Museum Hannover mounted TRUE PICTURES?, a major exhibition that—for the first time on this scale—presented key developments and trends in Canadian and US photography from 1980 to the present. It explores artists’ responses to the advent of digital photography and the digitization of the image with all of its technical possibilities, including the medium’s dissociation from the original phenomenon. The three generations of artists presented here have also experienced periods of upheaval and challenges throughout society and the political arena. These range from the 1968 protests, the impact of the Vietnam War, and the AIDS pandemic to racism, preoccupation with feminist theory, identity issues, and the questioning of perceptions surrounding sexuality and gender—topics that, in many cases, have not lost their urgency to this day. In addition to narrative and politically motivated stances, the works of the younger artists include subjective and transmedial approaches that express the visual culture of the 21st century. Among the thirty-six artists occupying a roughly 2000 sqm space are Walead Beshty, Nan Goldin, Deana Lawson, Martine Gutierrez, Cindy Sherman, Carrie Mae Weems, Jeff Wall, and James Welling. Learn more at the Sprengel Museum.