Beyond Reality
- Special Exhibition
The Photographs of John Gutmann
Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Galleries
Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Galleries
About The Exhibition
In 1933, John Gutmann, a German Jewish painter, immigrated to San Francisco, California. Fearing he would not be able to live off the sale of his paintings in the United States, Gutmann (1905–1998) learned photography shortly before leaving Germany and became a photojournalist. This survey of Gutmann’s photographs reveals his outsider’s take on the United States and its popular culture.
“Berlin was the greatest city in the world when I lived there,” said Gutmann. “[San Francisco was] very refreshing to me. I had had enough of art with a capital A.” He sought out what he found to be “the almost bizarre, exotic qualities” of American life, from the earliest drive-in movie theater and “eat in car” restaurant to tattoos and graffiti. He also used the camera’s supposed ties to truth to create surrealist images, ones that seemed to go beyond the reality of daily life.
Gutmann’s photographs of San Francisco show that it was a vibrant, international city in the 1930s, despite the Depression. The Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge were constructed. In 1939–40, the city hosted a world’s fair, the Golden Gate International Exposition. This extravaganza of technology, culture, and spectacle attracted exhibitors and visitors from around the globe.
During the 1930s, Gutmann traveled by bus up the West Coast and across the United States. Throughout and after World War II, he photographed in China, Italy, India, and Mexico. In addition to working as a photojournalist, Gutmann founded and taught at one of the first United States programs in creative photography at San Francisco State University in 1946.
All but one of the works in this exhibition were 2025 gifts from political commentator, former White House communications director, and television host George Stephanopoulos. Since 2011, he has donated more than 1,500 photographs to the CMA, gifts that have greatly enriched and expanded the museum’s photographic holdings.
This exhibition is organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Featured Art
Sponsors
All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Principal annual support is provided by Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder, the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, the John and Jeanette Walton Exhibition Fund, and Margaret and Loyal Wilson. Major annual support is provided by the late Dick Blum and Harriet Warm and the Frankino-Dodero Family Fund for Exhibitions Endowment. Generous annual support is provided by two anonymous donors, Gini and Randy Barbato, Cynthia and Dale Brogan, Dr. Ben and Julia Brouhard, Brenda and Marshall Brown, Gail and Bill Calfee, the Leigh H. Carter family, Dr. William A. Chilcote Jr. and Dr. Barbara S. Kaplan, Mary and Jim Conway, Joseph and Susan Corsaro, Ron and Cheryl Davis, the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Leigh and Andy Fabens, Florence Kahane Goodman, Martha H. and Steven M. Hale, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Linda Harper, Robin Heiser, the late Marta and the late Donald M. Jack Jr., the estate of Walter and Jean Kalberer, Robert M. Kaye, Jane and Doug Kern, the late Mrs. Nancy M. Lavelle, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. Lipscomb, Bill and Joyce Litzler, the Roy Minoff Family Fund, Lu Anne and the late Carl Morrison, Mrs. Peta and the late Dr. Roland Moskowitz, Jeffrey Mostade and Eric Nilson and Varun Shetty, Sarah Nash, Courtney and Michael Novak, Mark and Paula Nylander, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, Dr. Nicholas and Anne Ogan, William J. and Katherine T. O’Neill, Henry Ott-Hansen, Frank and Fran Porter, Christine Fae Powell, Peter and Julie Raskind, Michael and Cindy Resch, Marguerite and James Rigby, in memory of Dee Schafer, Betty T. and David M. Schneider, Elizabeth and Tim Sheeler, Saundra K. Stemen, Paula and Eugene Stevens, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
This exhibition was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.
