SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA.- The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art presents "Photographer Unknown - The Unidentified Photographs from the Wirtz Collection," on view through June 8, 2002. This is an exhibition drawn from the extraordinary collection of San Francisco gallery owner Stephen Wirtz. The exhibition focuses on unique, high-quality photographic works - most dating from the first half of the 20th century - that have never been attributed to a particular photographer. The 75 works in the show have never before been exhibited.

Wirtz has been collecting photographs for nearly twenty years. His private collection spans the history of the medium and contains significant pieces by many of the most important photographic artists as well as prints by accomplished photographers who never achieved widespread fame or notoriety. Wirtz also collects unsigned prints that have not been and may never be attributed to any specific photographer. These unique and unusual photographs have survived by virtue of their own intrinsic quality rather than their association with a particular artist. It is from this remarkable and singular group of images that this show has been assembled.



There is no doubt that these photographs were made by professionals. The size and quality of the prints as well as the expert lighting and composition of the images attest to this. However, it is doubtful that any of them were created as works of art. Most likely they had their origin in some form of commercial photography. There are examples of military, documentary, advertising, publicity, surveillance, illustration, and scientific photographs. What they have in common is an aesthetic quality that transcends their utilitarian origins. The makers of these images interjected artistic elements that make them stand out from merely functional photographs.



A collection of any kind reveals as much about the collector as it does about the objects themselves. This one is no exception. It has a coherence that reveals the practiced eye of a dealer in 20th century art. Many of the images have a pronounced sculptural quality emphasizing figure and ground. Throughout the collection of unidentified photographs we can see echoes of many of the major movements in modern art. Examples of minimalism, constructivism, surrealism, and formalism are evident. Some images recall the work of particular photographers. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Paul Outerbridge, Henri Lartigue, E.J. Bellocq, Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, and Robert Cumming all come to mind while viewing these photographs. Questions of attribution or influence naturally arise but they are not the primary focus of this exhibition. What we have is a group of rare, intriguing, one-of-a-kind photographs that have never before been exhibited.