CMA Exhibition Feature : More about the Metropolitan Bank Collection

Special Exhibitions

Photography Transformed


	Photography Transformed



Andreas Gursky Autobahn, Mettmann, 1993 Chromogenic process print 55 1/8 x 70 1/2 in. © Andreas Gursky Courtesy Metropolitan Bank & Trust

More about the Metropolitan Bank Collection

Since the 1970s, there has been increasing interest among Cleveland businesses to collect the art of our time and to acquire the work of local, national, and international artists. As companies established or re-evaluated their business strategies and corporate cultures, they recognized the importance and value of the visual arts in reflecting the significance of experimentation, risk-taking, and standard setting. Works of art were meant to stimulate, challenge, and satisfy both employees and clients.

I assembled this collection in consultation with New York dealer and gallery owner Barbara Gladstone. I am pleased to share so many great works of art with the museum’s audience and to emphasize the importance of art in every avenue of life.
— Robert M. Kaye, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Chairman and CEO

The whole Metropolitan collection is known for its quality and size — about 700 works containing some 1,300 elements. The bank’s vast collection is spread throughout 33 of its branches and loan offices, with the largest number of works in its new corporate headquarters at Metropolitan Plaza in Highland Hills, designed by the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP.

According to Tom Hinson, CMA’s curator of photography: An exceptional artistic ferment has changed the medium of photography during the past quarter century. This is a wonderful opportunity for visitors to enjoy the inventive, indeed revolutionary, creations that have arisen out of it.



Gregory Crewdson Untitled (Sewer Mystery), 1999 Chromogenic process print 47 1/2 x 59 1/2 in. © Gregory Crewdson Courtesy Metropolitan Bank & Trust

The exhibition focuses on some of the most challenging and stimulating artists of our time. In Gregory Crewdson’s Untitled (Sewer Mystery) (1999), what appears to be a New England scene with a white house and hilly landscape seems mysterious because of the presence of police and firefighter vehicles and personnel. The officers and firefighters examine steaming grates and a smoking car in a staged tableau that in fact was created solely to be photographed.



Shirin Neshat Untited, from the series Rapture - Women Scattered, 1999 Gelatin silver print 44 x 69 in. © Shirin Neshat Courtesy Metropolitan Bank & Trust

In Shirin Neshat’s Untitled, from the Series Rapture -- Women Scattered (1999), a scene of dozens of black-clad women evokes an abstract, bird-like migration to the sea.



Thomas Ruff Portrait, C. Pilar, 1988 Chromogenic process 79 x 62 in. © Thomas Ruff Courtesy Metropolitan Bank & Trust

Thomas Ruff’s Portrait (1988) of a female friend is shot like a passport photograph — the sitter is placed against a plain white background and stares into the camera.



Thomas Struth Musee d'Orsay 2, Paris 1989, 1990 Chromogenic process print 69 1/2 x 54 1/2 in. © Thomas Struth Courtesy Metropolitan Bank & Trust

Musée d'Orsay 2, Paris (1989) is part of Thomas Struth’s remarkable series of large-scale color photographs of people visiting art museums around the world. In this photograph, two small figures observe Thomas Couture’s monumental painting Romans of the Decadence (1847). Says Hinson: The large size of the photograph emphasizes not only the expansive influence of painting, but also the importance and impact of photography.

Page 1 of 3 | On the next page: Free Lecture February 17, 2002 at 3:30 pm