A new side of Ansel Adams: This weekend at the DIA

As members of the DIA, Dale and I go to all their major shows. When we saw they were doing an Ansel Adams show, I think we were both pretty underwhelmed at the thought of going to this exhibit. But, we went yesterday and I was really thrilled to have had my notions of Adams' work challenged and revised. Dale and I had seen a massive retrospective of Adams work at the Art Institute of Chicago a few years ago. That exhibit was massive in terms of scale and scope. Photographs were blown up to the size of Jackson Pollock canvases and the room was massive. After about 15 minutes, I had to flee; it was jam packed and I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. In part, I think my reaction to Adams work was in a rut because I had a hard time seeing many of these photos anew: I had seen so many Adams posters in people's apartments, in calendars and in those campus poster sales that it became hard to "see" them in any fresh ways. Additionally, the focus of the exhibit was his mountain views and I come from the aesthetic school that says, "mountains are very nice, thank you very much, but they do tend to get in the way of the view." Apparently, this runs in the family. I went yesterday with all of these thoughts in my mind and hoping that these ideas could be dislodged. I left feeling excited to see an exhibit that allowed me to see his work anew.
The scale of the DIA exhibit was much smaller. Absent were those massive sweeping enlargements. Instead, works were no more than 2 feet across and many were much smaller. The small scale was inviting; you had to go up to them and look at the works up close. There were the usual mountain shots but they had the largest crowds so I spent my time looking at some of his much smaller works. The works in his Group f/64 series were phenomenal and technically brilliant; the textures, details and precision were stunning. Later, he had done a series of very small things: textures of rocks, water, trees and other natural surfaces which, to me, were more sublime than those massive rocky vistas. His later works are also pretty interesting and, in the days of digital chicanery, works like Adams' "Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958" are pretty sublime.
Every time I go to the DIA, there's something there that really gives my preexisting ideas about an artist or art a really good shake. Last time I was there it was the Durer woodcuts; I had no idea they'd be so amazing. They're going to be closing from May until November to finish up some massive renovations (begun in 2001); it will be tough not to have it open for these months but I can't wait to see the new building.