Talks & Conversations

Artist Talk: Alec Soth

The image shows a group of people standing on a paved surface with a stone and wrought iron railing nearby. In the background, there is a misty waterfall merging into a pink sky, with green trees in the distance. Some individuals appear blurry due to motion. The color scheme includes earthy tones, pastel shades in the sky, and vibrant greens and whites from the natural elements.
Alec Soth, Niagara Falls, Ontario, 2019, inkjet print, Diana and Mallory Walker Fund, 2022.115.2

Enjoy a presentation by artist Alec Soth, whose photographs are on view in the exhibition Niagara Falls: Mist and Majesty. Soth worked for over two years on the American and Canadian sides of Niagara Falls using a large-format 8x10 camera, capturing newlyweds and lovers, cheap motels, and pawn shop wedding rings. His pictures are a remarkable portrayal of modern love and its aftermath. 

Alec Soth

artist

Alec Soth (born 1969, Minneapolis, MN) photographs people and landscapes of suburban and rural communities, often during road trips throughout the Midwest and the South. He received international acclaim when his photographs were featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney and São Paulo Biennials. He has published over 30 books including Sleeping by the Mississippi (2004); NIAGARA (2006); Broken Manual (2010); Songbook (2015); I Know How Furiously Your Heart is Beating (2019); A Pound of Pictures (2022); and Advice for Young Artists (2024). His numerous honors include the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship, and the International Center of Photography’s 27th Annual Infinity Award. In 2008, Soth created his own publishing company, Little Brown Mushroom, a multi-media enterprise focused on visual storytelling. 

The Arnold Newman Lecture Series on Photography provides a forum for leading photographers, primarily known for portraits, to discuss contemporary issues in the medium. Arnold Newman (1918–2006) is acknowledged as one of the great masters of the 20th and 21st centuries whose work changed portraiture. The Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation generously supported this series to make such conversations available to the public. 

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In a camp, two soldiers wearing blue uniforms are lost in thought as they listen to a military band playing music in the background in this vertical painting. Their uniforms consist of midnight-blue jackets, stone-blue pants, and flat-topped, brimmed hats. Brass buttons line the open fronts of their jackets, and a gold-colored emblem is affixed to the tops of their caps. One soldier, at the center of the painting, stands facing our left in profile with one hand on his hip. Another, to our right, sits in front of a tent, also looking to our left. The seated soldier’s knees are spread wide. One hand rests on at least two pieces of paper on his thigh, and he rests his chin in the other hand, also propped on his thigh. A low, triangular tent, about waist-high, is pitched to the left of the standing solider. The inside is dark but closer inspection reveals the bottom of one boot, presumably belonging to a solider lying down inside. At the lower left of the painting, gray smoke drifts up from a pot on a campfire. A knapsack and a pewter plate holding waffle-like hardtack are laid near the tent. A few branches cover the dirt ground to our right. A tan cloth draped over an arbor-like structure of sticks forms a partition between the two soldiers and the rest of the camp, dividing the composition. Rows of tents extend into the distance. A band of soldiers plays music in the distance, light glinting off their gold horn instruments. A row of tents is visible in the deep distance, perhaps across a body of water. The horizon line comes about two-thirds of the way up the composition, and puffy white clouds drift across the pale blue sky above.

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A woman plays an upright piano as two boys play checkers at a table in this horizontal painting. The scene is loosely painted with areas of flat color and pattern. The people have pale, peachy skin and dark brown hair. Their facial features are painted with dots or short strokes of black. The piano is against the wall to our left. The woman wears a short-sleeved, lemon-yellow dress with a long skirt. A music book is propped on the music stand, and loosely painted objects line the top of the instrument. The wall behind the piano is patterned with white and pale yellow flowers under and around arches against a cranberry-red background. The table where the boys play is in the middle of the room. The players sit in wooden chairs and wear black and white striped jackets with white collars. The boy to our right looks at the board while resting his left cheek, closer to us, in his hand. The other boy looks on with his arms on the table in front of him. The checkerboard sits on a red and white striped cloth, which has lines of black dots in the white strips. Beneath the table is a floral rug with blue and black flowers against a red background. The border is painted loosely with leafy shapes against bright white. Beneath the area rug the floor or another carpet is garnet red with a diamond-shaped grid painted in orange. A petal-pink, upholstered chair sits in front of a tall wardrobe in the back corner of the room. A picture with two violins against a blue background hangs on the side of the furniture to our right. A chest of drawers next to the wardrobe holds a few bowls or objects and a white statue, about half human height. The statue is of a person standing with one knee bent in front of the other, one elbow tucked by the side with that hand held to the chest, and the other bent elbow raised overhead. Pictures hang on the wall around the statue, and the wallpaper there is ivory white with a dark yellow pattern. The artist signed the work in the lower right corner, “Henri Matisse.”

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This painting shows a woman sitting with her body turned to the right, her hands clasped around her knees and her head tilted up to the ceiling. Her eyes are closed, and her long, wavy hair flows over her shoulders and down her back. She has pale skin, and her face is illuminated by dramatic lighting, highlighting her round cheeks and small nose. She is wearing a white blouse with ruffled sleeves that drapes off of her right shoulder, exposing her neck, sternum, and part of her shoulder. Over this shirt she seems to be wearing a draped purple garment with a yellow border that covers her other shoulder and her legs. The background is dark.

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