Ansel Adams exhibit to open in San Jose

An exhibition of work by legendary photographer Ansel Adams, who captured America’s wild beauty on black-and-white film, will open Saturday, Sept. 5, at the San Jose Museum of Art. The museum is the only West Coast stop for this nationally touring exhibition of 50 vintage photographs by Adams.

The show, “Ansel Adams Early Works,” will run through Feb. 28. Photographs are dated from the 1920s to the ‘50s; most are drawn from private collections.

Adams (1902-1984) is known for his iconic images of the American West. He began his frequent pilgrimages from his San Francisco home to California’s Yosemite National Park in 1916; he eventually spent a decade living and working there.

Though many museum visitors are familiar with the large, glossy photographs that Adams printed to order in the 1970s and ’80s, some may not be aware of the warm, richly toned photographs from his earlier years.

Included in the show is a recently discovered 1938 print of “Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley, California,” the earliest known print of Adams’ most celebrated Yosemite view. Also included are “El Capitan” (ca. 1923)”  “Monolith: the Face of Half Dome” (1927), and “Yosemite from Inspiration Point, Summer” (ca. 1936).

The San Jose Museum of Art, 110 S. Market St., is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., (408) 294-2787.

—Rosemary McClure, Special to The Times

Photo: Ansel Adams, Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley, California, 1938, Credit: Courtesy of art2art Circulating Exhibitions. ©2009 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at 5:58 am by Rosemary McClure and is filed under Arts & Culture, California, Fall, National Parks, News, Tips & Advice, San Francisco, Yosemite National Park. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.