University of Richmond Museums Receive Grant to Present Feininger Nature Photos
June 20, 2001
A grant from the Museum Loan Network has enabled the University of Richmond's Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature to schedule a major exhibit of photographer Andreas Feininger's nature studies, opening in March 2002.
The yearlong show, the Robins Gallery's first major exhibit in more than five years, will also mark the museum's 25th anniversary.
Feininger's nature photographs reveal patterns in various plant and animal forms, such as a snake's backbone, eroded soil near a riverbed, and seashells. Mounted along with the gallery's existing collection of more than 100 varieties of Conus shells, the photos should dramatically highlight patterns and shapes not always obvious to the casual observer.
Major collections of Feininger's nature photographs are housed at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Ariz., and the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y.
Born in Paris and raised in Germany, Feininger immigrated to America in 1939, completing almost 350 photographic essays for Life magazine between 1943-62. He has also published numerous books on photographic theory and technique as well as picture books including "The Anatomy of Nature" (1956), "Shells: Forms and Designs of the Sea" (1972) and "Nature in Miniature" (1989).