Centering on a group of one hundred photographs selected by the German-born, American artist before his death, John Gutmann: Culture Shock examined Gutmann’s documentary work of the 1930s and 1940s, featuring images from across the US and his military service in Asia. Trained as a painter but unable to exhibit or teach in Nazi Germany due to his Jewish heritage, Gutmann fled to San Francisco in 1933, where he abandoned painting for the camera. Fascinated with American culture, the artist would travel around the country, often in a Greyhound bus, documenting major political events such as the San Francisco waterfront strike in “We Want the 40 Hour Week,” San Francisco (1934), and more everyday moments like roller skating lessons in the park, as in The Lesson, Central Park, New York (1936).
Culture Shock is organized by the Iris & B. Gerald Canter Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University.