Frederick Sommer (1905-1999) was an artistic polymath, with deep interests in painting, drawing, photography, sculpture and collage. With his work he intended to engage the world formally, to harvest its chance gifts, decontextualizing and rearranging found images and objects according to often shocking visual affinities. The artist played with a wide variety of forms, textures and scale to create startling compositions amid objects and sites others found too insignificant to notice. Sommer was intent on expanding the limits of where beauty could be found, and after viewing a display of original musical scores, he began to formulate his own theories correlating the graphic design to the sound of musical scores. Alongside many great artists of the period including Edward Weston, Max Ernst, Man Ray and Aaron Siskind, Sommer created a unique and avant-garde body of work formulated from his interest in Surrealism.
Born in 1905 in Angri, Italy, Sommer was raised in Rio de Janeiro, and exposed to art and landscape architecture at an early age. He completed his studies at Cornell University, graduating with a Masters of Arts degree in Landscape Architecture. By his early 30s, Sommer took a trip to Switzerland for health reasons and began his explorations in multiple artistic disciplines. In 1974 Sommer received the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. He died in 1999 at the age of 93 in Prescott, Arizona where he and his wife Frances Sommer had lived since 1936. His legacy lives on at the Frederick and Frances Sommer Foundation. Since 2010, Bruce Silverstein has organized two major retrospectives of his work.
His works have been exhibited by the world’s most important institutions, including the George Eastman House, Rochester; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Delaware Art Museum; Serpentine Gallery, London; Charles Egan Gallery, New York; Philadelphia College of Art; Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington D.C.; Pasadena Art Museum, California; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Institute of Design, Chicago; Zimmergalerie Franck, Germany; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Work by the artist is represented in major museum collections internationally such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Maison Europeene de la Photographie; George Eastman House, Rochester; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Sommer’s work has been published widely. Noteworthy publications include Frederick Sommer: Photography, Drawing, Collage (2005), The Mistress of the World Has No Name: Where Images Come From (1987), Frederick Sommer at Seventy Five, a Retrospective (1980), and Venus, Jupiter and Mars: The Photographs of Frederick Sommer (1980).
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ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ AND FREDERICK SOMMER AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
the National Gallery of Art, May 3, 2023 -
BARBARA MORGAN, AARON SISKIND, FREDERICK SOMMER
Royal Academy, September 24, 2016 -
REVIEW BY L'OEIL DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE Songs and the Sky
The Eye of Photography, May 30, 2016 -
AARON SISKIND, FREDERICK SOMMER, AND KEITH SMITH AT MORGAN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
The Morgan Library, March 25, 2016 -
‘Soldier, Spectre, Shaman,’ an Alternate History at MoMA
Jason Farago, the New York Times, November 5, 2015 -
Anne Doran, Time Out, June 30, 2015
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ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ AND FREDERICK SOMMER AT BOWDOIN COLLEGE OF ART Under the Surface: Surrealist Photography
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, February 27, 2014 -
FREDERICK SOMMER AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART: A World of Bonds: Frederick Sommer’s Photography and Friendships
National Gallery of Art, June 13, 2013
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20th Anniversary Exhibition
REWIND 16 Dec 2021 - 19 Feb 2022 Gallery ExhibitionsBruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to announce REWIND, a celebration of our 20th anniversary. Featuring works selected from over one hundred exhibitions, REWIND is an opportunity to revisit the gallery's...Read more -
Fredrick Sommer
Visual Affinities 24 Oct - 7 Dec 2019 Gallery ExhibitionsIn the span of an extraordinary career, Frederick Sommer worked in a variety of media—encompassing drawing, painting, photography, collage, and writing. Although celebrated for his achievements in photography, the artist...Read more -
Drawing the Line
11 Jul - 30 Aug 2019 Gallery ExhibitionsBruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to announce a group exhibition featuring works by Harry Callahan, Germaine Krull, Shinichi Maruyama, Barbara Morgan, Sigmar Polke, Man Ray, Aaron Siskind, Keith A. Smith,...Read more -
Monochrome
20 Jan - 4 Mar 2017 Gallery ExhibitionsBruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to present MONOCHROME, an exhibition including works by Alfred Leslie, Barbara Morgan, Louise Nevelson, Man Ray, Aaron Siskind, Frederick Sommer and John Wood.Read more -
Songs and the Sky
An Exhibition of Art and Music 28 Apr - 25 Jun 2016 Gallery ExhibitionsBruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to present Songs and the Sky, an exhibition of art and music.Read more -
Fredrick Sommer
Glue Drawings 11 Jun - 31 Jul 2015 Gallery ExhibitionsBruce Silverstein is pleased to present an exhibition of Frederick Sommer’s glue color drawings from the 1930s-50s.Read more -
de-FORMATIONS
A group show featuring Andre Kertesz’s Distortions series 26 Feb - 18 Apr 2015 Gallery ExhibitionsIn 1933 André Kertész photographed two nude models in a carnival mirror as an assignment for the risqué publication Le Sourire. For a magazine often illustrated with erotic drawings, Kertész’s...Read more -
Fredrick Sommer
Choice and Chance, Structure Art and Nature 24 Feb - 2 Apr 2011 Gallery ExhibitionsBruce Silverstein / 20 and Ricco Maresca Gallery are pleased to announce a collaborative exhibition featuring the collages of Frederick Sommer. Containing some fifty examples from his prodigious output, dating...Read more -
DISCOVERIES
A special selection of extraordinary photographs from the gallery's private inventory 8 Jul - 6 Aug 2010 Gallery ExhibitionsBruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to announce DISCOVERIES, an exhibition featuring an eclectic selection of rare and noteworthy works by 35 known and lesser-known artists from the 20 th century.Read more -
Fredrick Sommer
Circumnavigation 4 Feb - 20 Mar 2010Bruce Silverstein is pleased to announce Circumnavigation, an exhibition of the various media mastered by the artist Frederick Sommer.Read more
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Frieze Masters
13 - 17 Oct 2021For the tenth anniversary of Frieze Masters, Bruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to present Series and Sequence , an exhibition featuring works spanning the nearly...Read more -
ART BASEL OVR:20C
Dream House 28 - 31 Oct 2020For Art Basel OVR:20c, Bruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to present Dream House. The digital presentation, built on the foundation of Louise Nevelson’s Dream House...Read more -
Art Basel
Online Viewing Room 19 - 26 Jun 2020Bruce Silverstein is pleased to participate in the second iteration of Art Basel’s digital platform designed to connect galleries and collectors from around the world....Read more -
AIPAD
4 - 7 Apr 2019Featured artists: Lewis Baltz, Ilse Bing, Constantin Brâncuși, Bill Brandt, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Imogen Cunningham, F. Holland Day, Frantisek Drtikol, Pierre Dubreuil, Walker...Read more -
Paris Photo
8 - 11 Nov 2018Recognized today as one of the most influential figures in modern photography, the Hungarian artist, designer and educator, György Kepes (1906-2001) was one of the...Read more -
Frieze Masters
4 - 7 Oct 2018Featured artists: Diane Arbus, John Baldessari, Constantin Brâncuși, Bill Brandt, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Henri Cartier-Bresson, F. Holland Day, František Drtikol, William Eggleston, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Robert...Read more -
Paris Photo
9 - 12 Nov 2017Featured artists: Bill Brandt, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Constantin Brâncusi, Harry Callahan, Henri Cartier Bresson, F. Holland Day, František Drtikol, Elliot Erwitt, Eric Fischl, Mishka Henner,...Read more -
Frieze Masters
5 - 8 Oct 2017Featured artists: Brassaï, Constantin Brâncusi, Harry Callahan, F. Holland Day, František Drtikol, André Kertész, Alfred Leslie, Rene Magritte, Henry Moore, Barbara Morgan, Man Ray, Aaron...Read more -
Frieze Masters
6 - 9 Oct 2016Featured artists: Constantin Brancusi, Marie Cosindas, F. Holland Day, André Kertész, Alfred Leslie, László Moholy-Nagy, Paul Outerbridge, Irving Penn, Man Ray, Alexander Rodchenko, Aaron Siskind,...Read more -
Art Basel
16 - 19 Jun 2016Bruce Silverstein Gallery is pleased to present a survey of the life and career of Frederick Sommer at Art Basel. Featuring work from the 1930s...Read more -
AIPAD
14 - 16 Apr 2016At the 2016 AIPAD Photography Show, Bruce Silverstein Gallery is proud to present Triumph of the Egg , featuring works of the same title by...Read more -
The Armory Show
3 - 6 Mar 2016Featured Artists: Irving Penn, Henry Moore, Frederick Sommer, Constantin Brancusi, Shinichi Maruyama, Max Neumann, Eileen Neff, Aaron Siskind, Mishka Henner, André Kertész, Ed Ruscha, Larry...Read more -
Frieze Masters
14 - 18 Oct 2015The gallery is pleased to present a selection of modern photographic masterpieces at Frieze Masters in London from October 14 to 18, 2015. Artists include...Read more