Newspaper Diary
J O A N N E
L E O N A R D
Ne w s p a p e r D ia ry Tromp e-l’Oe il Photo graphs
J O A N N E SPONSOR
CATALOG CONTRIBUTORS
The University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities
Wendy Kozol Professor, Department of Comparative American Studies, Oberlin College
Amanda Krugliak Curator, Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan
L E O N A R D
April 5 – May 31, 2012
Curator’s Statemen t Amanda Krugliak
J
oanne Leonard is an artist who has
art professor at the time (most were men)
past and present, real and imagined. (fig. 1)
that spoke of empowerment, feminism, the
The materiality of her photographic collages
cataloguing the small details, the countertop,
strength and potential impact of our own
juxtaposes the flat, two-dimensional surface
toys strewn about the floor, a lover asleep on
stories, ideas, and imaginations. It wasn’t until
with the luridness of unexpected combinations.
the bed, the dream of a window, and the house
years later that I recognized her tremendous
A hint of color, texture, pattern, a passage of
not quite ready for company. Both the act of
influence on my own artistic practice. I had
text ignites the images, alluding to that place
photographing and the resulting images of this
carried her with me. She taught me that value
of seismic instability, where all breaks away.
inner world serve as record of the human trace
is inherent in one’s life and work, but it is also
and the value of our own human experiences.
dependent on a constant vigil and endurance…
Leonard continues the conversation. The
Her photographs are as much about what
a commitment to the process of becoming.
significance of our books and correspondence,
always offered a view into the room,
matters as the mattering, profoundly personal and conversely startling in their entirety.
our histories, our love letters, our rituals are in
or complacent, rather in a state of response.
doubt. These brave new works initially reside in
Her own narratives and the reign of the world’s
the present. They are modern and unaffected,
was her student at the University of Michigan,
events are in overlay, deeply relevant to the
somehow reassuring. We can almost picture
just beginning to explore my own voice as a
collective shifts of society.
the artist herself drinking her coffee, reading
I first met Joanne Leonard in the 1980s. I
young woman and an artist. She was perhaps the first person I’d ever known and the only
2
Joanne Leonard’s work has never been static
In Newspaper Diary: Trompe l’Oeil Photographs,
Newspaper Diary
Leonard’s use of collage reiterates this back and forth between public and private,
the Times, placing cuttings of the newspaper against the pages of her favorite art book.
Before long, through a carefully considered
themselves become object. The uncanny
sleight of hand, these trompe-l’oeil
relationship between visual representations
photographs defy all presumptions and
decades apart suggests that our uniqueness
constructs of time, upending any notion we
is more likely and predictable than we
have about history and our place in it, or
think, like a roll of sixes in a game of dice,
some record left for posterity’s sake. These
or the Jack of Spades in a deck of cards…
compositions exist only in the photographs;
noteworthy, but not beyond replication.
they are props, mise-en-scènes. And in this
We live in a world full of black holes,
discovery comes the wrenching acceptance
twitters and texts, and the big bang. Perhaps
of what we desperately try to save and what
in some alternate universe there exists
we inevitably brace ourselves to lose in the
another version of us, with a different end.
midst of it all.
fig. 1
Newspaper Diary offers no absolutes but
harsh realities of the times in which we live,
some measure alluding to continuity…what
and the inevitability of a tomorrow that may
complex conceptually. Each photograph
came before, “it is what it is” and a life after
not remember what mattered. Yet, in the
captures the translation from idea to volition.
this one.
deliberateness of these photographs that are
The works in Newspaper Diary are highly
The gravity of the book, the image, and the
Joanne Leonard matter-of-factly catalogs
paper succumb to the impermanence of
this time line, capturing for a moment the
things. As a final record, the photographs
poignant immediacy of the everyday, the
already recollections, Leonard also embraces humanity and a certain resilience.
JOANNE LEONARD
3
Encounters with the Everyday: Joanne Leonard’s Newspaper Diary: Trompe-l’Oeil Photographs Wendy Kozol
A
n aerial view of the Japanese coastline
stages “momentary collages” that exist
devastated by the 2011 tsunami
only temporarily for her trompe-l’oeil prints.
uncannily resembles a color woodblock
Headlines appear across pages of books as
print of the Great Edo Earthquake of 1855.
if to catalogue the growing obsolescence
(fig. 2) Compositional similarities between a
of newspapers while the dirty or damaged
Gainsborough painting of two young girls and a
edges of public library books that signal both
news photo of an African mother and her two
age and heavy usage resist the temporal
young children from Antananarivo, Madagascar,
specificity provided by newspaper datelines.
(p.8) seem at first to promote fantasies about
Beyond a record of current events, Leonard’s
childhood innocence. Until, that is, one
fig. 2
reads the newspaper caption about the abuse
4
assemblages provoke emotional, aesthetic, and political encounters between public and private
of the five-year-old girl by an uncle. A publicity
of sorts as a similar throng gazes up at Christ
worlds, and between historical and present
shot of Pope Benedict XVI with Rabbi Arthur
hovering in the sky. (fig. 3)
time, that underlie the quotidian experiences of
Shneier in front of a throng of rabbis taking
Catching the eye through unexpected,
their picture emerges out of the decorative
sometimes witty or disturbing, and often
borders from a facsimile medieval manuscript
poignant juxtapositions in Newspaper Diary:
has used photography, collage, and other
whose facing page provides an ancient mirror
Trompe-l’Oeil Photographs, Joanne Leonard
mixed media to create visual narratives of
Newspaper Diary
reading the newspaper. For the past four decades, Joanne Leonard
female subjectivity that explore the joys and
artistic vision as she utilizes autobiography to
pains of domestic intimacies. This “intimate
explore the layered twists of intimate desires,
documentary approach” provides multi-layered
daily life, and painful loss. In this way, Leonard
studies of the social, emotional, and sensual
consistently explores feminist concerns about
pulls and pushes of motherhood and family life.
embodiment, power, desire, and inequality.
Relentlessly self-reflexive, Leonard explores the
Newspaper Diary pushes the boundaries
politics of the private sphere through close-up
of Leonard’s previous interests in public
images of bodies and faces that accompany
and private spheres. The tug and pull of
written memories of hopes, struggles, and
temporalities locates the immediacy of news
disappointments. In the past decade, Leonard’s
events within a historical gaze that contrasts
work has increasingly moved towards
ephemerality with durability. At the same time,
explorations of the intersections of memoir and
color, composition, and other aesthetic features
Rather than attempt to document “the real,”
public histories. She uses collages of drawings,
reveal historical influences on contemporary
Leonard’s trompe-l’oeil pictures re-present
photographs, and print material to visualize a
ways of seeing. The swirls of smoky red and
reproductions, facsimiles, and copies. Visual
fragmented and non-linear family history that
orange colors in a 2010 news photo of a fire
witnessing in Joanne Leonard’s world, then, is
is anything but singular or private. Visually
in northern Arizona parallel those in J. M. W.
always a mediated experience in which history
lyrical, Leonard’s art typically has an edge that
Turner’s famous 1835 painting The Burning of
and the present do not so much clash
catches your breath. Memory is crucial to her
the House of Lords and Commons. (p. 11)
as mingle.
fig. 3
JOANNE LEONARD
5
Amid Leonard’s meticulous cataloging of the intersections of the local and global,
6
and the Haitian earthquake. Similarities in composition, lighting, or
The emphasis in Newspaper Diary on the aesthetic politics of looking becomes starkly
one trompe-l’oeil photograph features a
other formal elements speak across historical
evident in the picture of a Haitian man covered
news picture of a barn fire in which the
particularities. Through such dialogues,
in gray ash lying dead on a stretcher in the
exposed black frames of the structure signal
Newspaper Diary raises questions by means
aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake that
its imminent collapse. (fig.4) Opposite, the
of aesthetic pleasure to draw out empathetic
killed thousands. (p. 9) What startles the eye,
spidery limbs of an abstract black sculpture by
engagement with social struggles. The rhythmic
and the imagination, though, is the similarity
Venezuelan artist Gego (Gertrude Goldschmidt)
beauty of linear structures in the picture of
in the pose of the earthquake victim to that
resonates with the fragility of the barn’s
Chinese child gymnasts (cover and p. 10) at first
of the brightly colored painting of a crucified
blackened frame. Moreover, the many
glance seems intent simply to be a visual echo
Charlemagne Masséna Péralte, a Haitian
shadows created by the wire sculpture give
of the musical notations on the page behind.
nationalist who opposed the US invasion in
the appearance in the reproduction of a blur.
Leonard’s push here towards abstraction
1915. In works like this one, Leonard uses the
Throughout the exhibition, such references
produces an aesthetic encounter that
language of visuality to provoke an emotional
to the transitory nature of human existence
disconcertingly aligns the pleasures of the gaze
as well as political encounter with histories
remind us of local moments of change and
with the jolt of recognition that these young
that stretch well beyond the immediacy of
loss that occur alongside more monumental
children are hanging upside down in physically
contemporary natural disasters or social crises.
global events like the Japanese tsunami
demanding, if not painful, positions.
Newspaper Diary
Along with confronting the emotional toll of
fig. 4
against a stormy sky. (p. 12) Leonard placed
daily news as those encounters are weighted
this delightfully clichéd photograph on top of
down by aesthetic and social histories.
a copy of Alice in Wonderland, open to a page
Contrasting the durability of books with
with an illustration of the Mad Hatter’s tea
the ephemeral qualities of the newspaper,
party. Visual wit compels political commentary
Leonard emphasizes both the impermanence
in works like this one, where the top ledges
and continuities that structure acts of visual
on the podiums appear like reverse or upside-
witnessing. As we move between historical
down top hats in an echo of the Mad Hatter’s.
documentation and ephemera, these trompe-
Having just lived through the first decade of
l’oeil photographs of no-longer-extant collages
the twenty-first century, this reminder of going
resonate with palimpsests of loss and pain as
down the rabbit hole may need little more
well as the joys of the everyday.
social change, humor also slyly inserts itself
commentary even as the affective impact once
into this exhibition. For instance, a trompe-l’oeil
again shifts us uneasily between the profound
photograph reproduces a 2008 news picture
and the quotidian.
of Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and
Newspaper Diary forms a visual archive
President George W. Bush standing behind two
that mobilizes repetition, association, and
tall podiums, appearing small and insignificant
connotation to catalog visual encounters with
JOANNE LEONARD
7
8
Newspaper Diary
JOANNE LEONARD
9
10
Newspaper Diary
JOANNE LEONARD
11
12
Newspaper Diary
JOANNE LEONARD
13
14
Newspaper Diary
JOANNE LEONARD
15
16
Newspaper Diary
JOANNE LEONARD
17
Ph oto Ca pti on s All images: Joanne Leonard Newspaper Diary: trompe-l’oleil photographs, ink jet prints, 24” x 37” These images represent a selection from the Newspaper Diary exhibition in the Institute for the Humanities gallery in 2012. 8 Picture from Antanarivo and Gainsborough December 1, 2006, news photo: Mother and children in Madagascar, Lynsey Addario, New York Times. Book reproduction: The Painter’s Daughters Chasing a Butterfly, Thomas Gainsborough, ca. 1756 in The New Child: British Art and the Origins of Modern Childhood, 1730-1830, by James Christen Steward (University Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, in association with the University of Washington Press, 1995).
18
Newspaper Diary
9 Haiti crucifixes 10 Music and boys 11 Turner and fire 12 Bush and Angela Merkel (earthquake victim on bars (cover image) with top hats (lecterns) June 22, 2010, news and murdered Haitian June 12, 2008, news August 11, 2010, news photo:“Smoke and hero) photo: President Bush, photo: Gymnasts 4 to January 15, 2010, news photo: “A body in Port au Prince, Haiti, covered with dust from collapsed building,” Damon Winter, New York Times. Book reproduction: Crucifixion de Charlemagne Péralte Pour La Liberté, Philom Obin painting, 1948 in Peintures Haïtiennes by Warren E. Leon (Delroisse, 1978).
Flames in Northern
7 years old in Zheijiang
Arizona,” Matt York,
who met with German
Province, China testing
Associated Press.
Chancellor Angela
their talents at a sports
Book reproduction:
Merkel….responds to
school, Reuters.
The Burning of the
Tehran’s nuclear program,
Book reproduction:
House of Lords and
Johannes Eisele, Reuters.
Numbers: The Universal
Commons, J.M.W.
Book reproduction:
Language by Denis
Turner, 1835, in
The Nursery “Alice” by
Guedj (Harry N. Abrams,
Turner by Barry
Lewis Carroll and Sir
1997).
Venning (Phaedon,
John Tenniel (Mayflower
2003).
Books, 1979).
13 Madame Curie and women in science December 19, 2006, news photo: “Women in Science, the Battle Moves to the Trenches,” Max Whittaker, New York Times. Book reproduction: Madame Curie in her Laboratory, 1912, in Madame Curie: A Biography by Eve Curie (Doubleday, 1937).
14 Anne Frank’s tree October 2, 2007, news photo: “A New Wave of Support for Anne Frank’s Ailing Tree,” Herman Wouters, New York Times. Book reproduction: Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary - A Photographic Remembrance by Ruud van der Rol and Rian Verhoeven (Viking, 1993).
Figures within Essays 15 Bronze baby and Julia from Joanne’s Being in Picutures
16 Diego Rivera and 17 Fork-making machine factory in Slovakia and Russian montage November 25,
December 30, 2011,
2006, news photo:
February 13, 2011,
news photo: Bronze
Trnava, Slovakia
news photo:“Worker
statue of Eros sleeping,
Peugeot factory,
at the Sherrill
3rd century B.C. to
Didier Mallac, New
Manufacturing
early 1st century
York Times. Book
flatware factory in
A.D., Metropolitan
reproduction:
Sherrill, N.Y., which
Museum of Art Rogers
Detroit Industry,
closed its doors eight
Fund, 1943. Book
Diego Rivera mural,
months ago,” Dick
reproduction: “Julia,
1933, in Diego
Blume, Post Standard.
half asleep” in Being
Rivera: The Detroit
Book reproduction:
in Pictures by Joanne
Industry Murals by
Leonard (University of Michigan Press, 2008).
1 Cat’s tongue November 12, 2010,
2 Tsunami and fire 1899 and 2011
3 Haggadah with Pope and Rabbi
4 Burned barn and Gego sculpture
news photo: A Study of
March 12, 2011, news
April 19, 2008, news
April 14, 2011, news
Cat Lapping, NewYork
photo: Natori, Japan,
photo: Pope Benedict
photo: Barn blaze
Times photos from
“House swallowed by
XVI met with Rabbi Arthur
in Salem Township,
video by Reis, Stocker
a tsunami set off by an
Schneier at the Park East
Michigan, Salem
et al, courtesy, MIT
earthquake,” Kyodo News
Synagogue in Manhattan,
Township Fire
and Science. Book
via Associated Press.
Chang W. Lee, New
Department. Book
reproduction: Kitten’s
Book reproduction:
York Times. Book
reproduction: plate
First Full Moon by Kevin
Japanese kawaraban (tile-
reproduction: Sarajevo
6, wire drawing, 1977
Henkes (Greenwillow
block printed newspaper)
Haggadah by Eugene
(untitled) by Gego
Books, 2004).
showing the Great Edo
Werber (Prosveta,1983).
in Gego: Between
Earthquake, 1855 in
Transparency and the
Electrification of
Divine Wind: The History
Invisible (Museum of
Linda Bank Downs
the Entire Country,
and Science of Hurricanes
Fine Arts, Houston, 2006).
(WW Norton, 1999).
Gustav Klutsis, 1920,
by Kerry A. Emanuel
in “Soviet Practice
(Oxford University Press,
1919-1937,” by M.
2005)
Tupitsyn in Montage and Modern Life 19191942 (M.I.T. Press, 1992).
JOANNE LEONARD
19
Joanne Leonard Joanne Leonard is a photographer, photo-
From an early point in her years of
collage artist, teacher, writer, and feminist
image making, Leonard used photo collage
whose work has contributed to a wide variety
to (con)textualize her own photo images,
of fields from fine art to autobiography
combining them with news photos as in
studies. Her work has been included in the
the 1970s collage Red Triptych. Journal of a
San Francisco Museum of Art’s Women of
Miscarriage (1973), a wordless journal made
Photography (1975), Lippard’s From the Center
entirely in photo-collage, and Julia and the
(1976), Janson’s History of Art (1986), Gardner’s
Window of Vulnerability, a 1980s photo collage
Art Through the Ages (1991), Hirsch’s The
expressing anxieties about the threat of nuclear
Familial Gaze (1996), and Chaney’s Graphic
war, are works that furthered her explorations
Subjects (2011). In 2008, her gorgeously
of photos from everyday life and images from
produced visual memoir Being In Pictures:
world news in television and print. Sixty works
Joanne Leonard’s studio at 1250 Main Street, Ann Arbor
An Intimate Photo Memoir, with foreword by
created from 1990-92 make up Not Losing her
Now her Newspaper Diary, a series begun in
Lucy R. Lippard, was published by University
Memory. These works overlaid photographs of
2005 and continuing, suggests her expansive
of Michigan Press. In the 1960s and ‘70s she
women in Leonard’s family with dialogue from
engagement with the daily newspaper and a
taught in the San Francisco Bay area including
broadcasts of the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas
vast archive of images in books.
at San Francisco Art Institute and Mills College.
hearings. A small cache of news clippings from
She is Distinguished University Professor
1877 play a central role in Leonard’s film-like
Emeritus at the University of Michigan, where
Reel Family, a twenty-two-foot-long translucent
she taught for thirty-one years.
collage made in the year 2000.
Ne w s p a p e r D ia ry CURATOR Amanda Krugliak PUBLICITY Stephanie Harrell CATALOG DESIGN Savitski Design Š 2012, Regents of the University of Michigan
J O A N N E
L E O N A R D