CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS.- The major retrospective, American Horizons, is the first complete survey of the remarkable photographs of Art Sinsabaugh (1924 -1983), an important American photographer and educator. A landscape photographer in the broadest sense, Sinsabaugh photographed rural and urban America, capturing a richly nuanced sense of space and the ever-changing face of the American environment.

In the early 1960s, Sinsabaugh made his artistic breakthrough with a giant 12 x 20-inch “banquet” camera that allowed him to synthesize a 19th-century vision with mid-20th-century formalism. The images that resulted were detailed, ribbon-like panoramas that reveal more than the human eye can see. Sinsabaugh realized that his landscapes were more than pretty “panoramas.” However, the photographs reflect his slowly developing pattern of social awareness. Working during a period of dramatic economic shifts, Sinsabaugh was particularly drawn to urban and rural environments in transition.

The evolution of his mature style coincided with his move to Champaign-Urbana, where he served as Professor of Photography at the University of Illinois. Working in large series, Sinsabaugh sought to create an all-encompassing “census” of the American landscape – the rural Midwestern farm, the urban cityscapes of Chicago and Baltimore, the mountains and resorts of New England, and the barren deserts of the southwest.

Drawn primarily from the artist’s archive of more than 3,000 images in the Indiana University Art Museum, this exhibition, featuring over eighty-five photographs, surveys all aspects of the artist’s oeuvre, from his early design studies through his late work in the American southwest. American Horizons also includes Sinsabaugh’s two most important series, Midwest Landscapes and Chicago Landscapes, as well as extremely rare mounted exhibition prints.

The opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Friday, June 3, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. and will feature the sounds of Cornrmeal, the super-charged bluegrass band. On Wednesday, June 3 at 6:00 p.m. Keith F. Davis, noted photo-historian and the director of Fine Arts Programs at Hallmark Cards, Inc., will talk about Art Sinsabaugh and the exhibition. Davis is the curator of American Horizons and the author of the exhibition catalogue. A Kids@Krannert! event will be held on Saturday, June 18, from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Join the fun and explore the exhibition through new eyes, using a variety of kid-friendly photo techniques.

American Horizons, organized by the Indiana University Art Museum, is on view at Krannert Art Museum from June 4 through July 31. Krannert Art Museum is a unit of the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The museum is located at the corner of Sixth St. and Peabody Dr. in Champaign, one block east of Memorial Stadium. The museum is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. Suggested donation $3.