CV

Biography

Born 1937 in Orange, New Jersey, USA.
 
Currently lives in Astoria, Oregon, USA.

Education / Teaching

1956 – 1960
Doctor in English at the University of Southern California, USA
1962 – 1970
Assistant Professor of English at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, USA

Grants and Awards

2022
Lucie Award 2022, Lifetime Achievement, New York, USA
2009
Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography, Göteborg, Sweden
2006
Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, The Photographers’ Gallery
2004
Citigroup Photography Prize
1995
Spectrum International Prize for Photography
1994
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award
1987
Charles Pratt Memorial Award
1982
Peer Award from The Friends of Photography
1980
Guggenheim Fellowship
1979
Colorado Governor's Award in the Arts
1978
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
1975
Award of Merit, American Association of State and Local History
1973
Guggenheim Fellowship
 
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023
American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams, Nevada Museumm of Art, USA
2022
American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA
2018
Robert Adams. A Right to Stand, Fondation A Stichting, Brussels, Belgium
2014
Robert Adams. Buildings in Colorado 1964-1980, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
 
The Question of Hope. Robert Adams in Western Oregon, Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
2010 – 2014
Robert Adams. The Place We Live, Travelling tour: Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada; Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado; Los Angeles Country Museum of Art; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Josef Albers Museum, Quadrat, Bottrop, Germany; Jeu de Paume, Paris, France, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland
2010
Robert Adams, Fotografins Hus, Stockholm, Sweden
2009
Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography, Museum of Art, Gothenburg, Sweden
 
Robert Adams. Seascapes, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
2007
Robert Adams. Trees 1965-2005, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
 
Robert Adams. On the Edge, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art contemporain, Paris, France
2006
Robert Adams. Pine Valley, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
 
Robert Adams. Turning Back, Center for Creative Photography, Tuscon, Arizona
 
Robert Adams. Landscapes of Harmony & Dissonance, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California
 
Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK and Berlin, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
2005
Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
 
Robert Adams. Turning Back, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
 
Robert Adams. Turning Back, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
2004
Robert Adams. The Paradise, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
 
Robert Adams. From the Missouri West, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey
 
Robert Adams. The New West, Josef Albers Museum, Bottrop, Germany
2003
Robert Adams. Commerical, Residential, Roth Horowitz, New York, New York
2002
Robert Adams. What We Bought: The New World, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conneticut
2001
Robert Adams. Places – People, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway
 
Robert Adams. Reinventing the West, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
 
Robert Adams. Sunlight, Solitude, Democracy, Reed College, Portland, Oregon
 
Robert Adams. True West, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
2000
Robert Adams. California, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
1998
Robert Adams. To the Mouth of the Columbia, The Art Museum, Princeton University, New Jersey
1997
Robert Adams. What We Bought: The New World, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
 
Galerie Meert Rihoux, Brussels, Belgium
1996
Robert Adams. Listening to the River, Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois
 
Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, New York
 
Robert Adams. Our Lives and Our Children, Musée d'Arte Moderne, St. Etienne, France
1995
Robert Adams. West from the Columbia, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
 
Robert Adams. Listening to the River, Forum Stadtpark, Graz, Austria
 
Robert Adams. What We Bought: The New World, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
 
Robert Adams. Listening to the River, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany
1994
Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
 
Robert Adams. Listening to the River, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
1993
Robert Adams. At the End of the Colombia River, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
 
Galerie Meert Rihoux, Brussels, Belgium
1992
Centre d'Art Contemporain, Brussels, Belgium
1991
Photo Gallery International, Tokyo, Japan
1990
Dean Jensen Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1989
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1987
Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
 
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
1986
Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
 
California Museum of Photography, Riverside, California
1985
Robert Adams. Summer Nights, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
 
Northlight Gallery, Tucson, Arizona
1984
Robert Adams. Our Lives and Our Children, Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
1983
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin
1981
Castelli Graphics, New York, New York
 
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
1980
Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
 
Atlanta Gallery of Photography, Atlanta, Georgia
1979
Robert Adams. Prairie, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
1977
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
1976
Castelli Graphics, New York, New York
 
St. John's College, Santa Fe, New Mexico
 
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023
60 Years of Collecting: An anniversary exhibition celebrating the UMCA Permanent Art Collection, University Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts, USA
 
MOMAT Collection, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
 
A Time of Gifts: Six Years of Photographs Given to the Collection, 2016-2022, SBMA, Santa Barbara, USA
2022
Resonances. Fundación MAPFRE Collections, KBr Photography Center, Barcelona, Spain
2021
American Photography, Albertina, Vienna, Austria
2020
BOOKS. An exhibition of books about art and art about books, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
 
Robert Adams / Sabine Moritz: Passages, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
2019
Negativer Raum, Skulptur und Installation im 20./21. Jahrhundert, ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe, Germany
 
In the Sunshine of Neglect, California Museum of Photography UCR Arts, Riverside, California
2018
The Beauty of Lines. Masterpieces from the Sondra Gilman and Celso Gonzalez-Falla Collection, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
2017
Autophoto, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art contemporain, Paris, France
2015
HyperAmerica. Landscape - Image - Reality, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria
 
Land Meets Water: European and American Photography from 1860 to the Present, Artipelag, Gustavsberg, Sweden
 
Myth and Memory in Recent American Landscape Photography, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
 
Take One: Contemporary Photographs, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 
America Is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
2014
Aperture Remix, Museum Photographic Arts, San Diego, California
 
Unbeugsam und ungebändigt, Dokumentarische Fotografie um 1979, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
 
Mémoires Vives, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, France
 
Prix Pictet: Power, Travelling tour: Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California; Aperture Gallery, New York; Prix Pictet, Zurich, Switzerland
 
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, „An Enduring Vision. Photographs from the Lane Collection“
 
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, „At the Window: The Photographer's View
2013
Looking at the New West Contemporary Landscape Photography, Fralin Museum of Art, Charlottesville, Virginia
 
30x: Three Decades, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California
 
Shared Vision, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey
2012
true stories, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
 
Photography Calling!, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
2011
In Focus, The Sky, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California
 
New Topographics, Netherlands Photo Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2010
New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
 
American Documents, FotoMuseum Antwerp, Belgium
 
New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
2009
Into the Sunset – Photography’s Image of the American West, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
2008
Oceans, Rivers, and Skies: Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, and Alfred Stieglitz, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
2007
What does the Jellyfish want?, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
2006
Nothing and Everything: Drawing, Painting, Photography and Sculpture, 1896–2006, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California and Peter Freeman Gallery, New York
 
Where Rivers Join the Sea: Photographs by Robert Adams and Marcos Zimmerman, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
 
Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
 
Tiefenschärfe, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany
 
Ectopia: The Second ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, International Center of Photography, New York
 
60th Anniversary Show, Gimpel Fils, London, UK
2005
Some Trees, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany
 
Nine Abstract Artists, Osborne Samuel / Scolar Fine Art, London, UK
2004
Open Spaces, P.S. 1, New York
 
Citigroup Photography Prize, The Photographer’s Gallery, London
 
Glorious Harvest: Photographs from the Michael E. Hoffman Tribute Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 
Verne Dawson, Robert Adams, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2003
Cruel and Tender: The Real in the 20th Century Photograph, Tate Modern, London, UK
 
Cruel and Tender: The Real in the 20th Century Photograph, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
 
Jede Fotografie ein Bild – Siemens Fotosammlung, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
2002
Adams, Brohm, Berges, Fuchs, Nieweg – Landschaft, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Germany
2001
Settings and Players, White Cube, London, UK
 
Das Museum unserer Wünsche, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
 
Amerikanische Fotografie um 1970, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland
2000
How You Look At It, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
1999
The American Century Art and Culture 1900-2000, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
 
Measure of Nature, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
 
Sea Change, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona
 
Waterproof, Belem Cultural Center, Lisbon, Portugal
1997
Documenta 10, Kassel, Germany
 
The View from Denver, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
 
Frac Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France
1996
Crossing the Frontier, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
 
Perpetual Mirage, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1995
Silent Witness, Various locations, sponsored by the United Nations
1994
Sea Sights, Offshore Gallery, New York
 
Hidden Faces, Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1993
Critical Landscapes, Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
 
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
 
University Corporation of Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
 
Lowinsky Gallery, New York
 
Esders Gallery, Paris, France
 
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
1992
Robert Adams / Wim Wenders: Photographs of the American West, Amerika-Haus, Berlin, Germany
 
Mehr als ein Bild, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
 
A History of Oregon Photography, Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
 
Lowinsky Gallery, New York
1991
Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, Museum of Modern Art, New York
 
The Kiss of Apollo, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
 
Timothy O'Sullivan and Robert Adams, Turner/Krull Gallery, Los Angeles, California
 
Visions / Revisions, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
 
Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
1990
The Indomitable Spirit, International Center of Photography, New York
 
Passages de l'Image, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, France
 
Notes for Friends, James/Schubert Gallery, Houston, Texas
1989
On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: 150 Years of Photography, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
 
Photography Until Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York
 
Photography Now, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
 
Une Autre Objectivité, Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris, France
 
Decade by Decade, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona
 
The Art of Photography 1839-1989, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
 
The New American Landscape, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
 
Picturing California , Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
 
Night Light, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
1987
Nuovo Paesaggio Americano, Museo Fortuny, Venedig, Italy
 
American Photographs, 1930-1986, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1986
Artists in Mid-Career, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
 
Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia
 
Looking at the American Land, Ohio Wesleyan University, Ohio
 
Views and Visions, International Center of Photography, New York
1985
Western Spaces, Burden Gallery, New York
 
Robert Adams / Albert Renger-Patzsch, Kunstverein München e.V., Munich, Germany
1984
Three Americans, Museum of Modern Art, New York
 
Automobile and Culture, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
1983
Slices of Time: California Landscapes, Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
1981
American Landscapes, Museum of Modern Art, New York
 
The Whitney Biennale, Whitney Museum of Art, New York
1977
Contemporary American Photographic Works, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1976
Photography for Collectors, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1975
14 American Photographers, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland
 
New Topographics, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York
1973
Contemporary Photographs, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey
 
New Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York
 
Landscape / Cityscape, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
1971
Robert Adams / Emmet Gowin, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1970
New Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1964
Documenta 3, Kassel, Germany
1962
31th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

Selected Bibliography

2020
Robert Adams: Los Angeles Spring, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
 
Robert Adams: On Lookout Mountain, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
 
Robert Adams: Eden, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
 
Robert Adams: Summer Nights, Walking, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
 
Joshua Chuang and Robert Adams: Boats, Books, Birds, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
2017
Robert Adams: An Old Forest Road, exh. cat., Galerie Thomas Zander, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, Germany
2014
Robert Adams: Buildings in Colorado, 1964-1980, exh. cat., Galerie Thomas Zander, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, Germany
2013
The Place We Live: A Retrospective Selection of Photographs, 1964-2009 (new edition), Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
2011
Denver (new edition, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado in cooperation with Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
 
The Place We Live: A Retrospective Selection of Photographs, 1964-2009, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
2010
What Can We Believe Where? Photographs of the American West, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
2009
Denver: A Photographic Survey of the Metropolitan Area (revised edition), Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
 
Summer Nights, Aperture, New York and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
 
What We Bought: The New World, Scenes From the Denver Metropolitan Area, 1970 -1974, (2nd edition), Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
2008
The New West (3rd edition), Aperture, New York
 
Time Passes, Steidl Publishers, Göttingen, Germany
2006
Manzanita, Nazraeli Press
 
Interiors 1973-1974, Nazraeli Press
 
Along Some Rivers, Aperture, New York
2005
Turning Back, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, California
 
A Portrait in Landscapes, Nazraeli Press
 
Pine Valley, Nazraeli Press
2003
Commercial Residential: Landscapes Along the Colorado Front Range, 1968-1972, Roth Horowitz, PPP Editions, New York
2002
Alders, Nazraeli Press
 
Boddhisattva, Nazraeli Press
 
Reinventing the West, Addison Gallery of American Art, Massachusetts
 
Sunlight, Solitude, Democracy, Home... Photographs by Robert Adams, Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery / Reed College, Portland, Oregon
2000
California, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
 
The New West (2nd edition), Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, Germany
1999
Eden, Roth Horowitz, New York
 
Notes for Friends, University Press of Colorado
 
I Hear the Leaves and Love the Light, Nazraeli Press
1996
Essais sur le Beau en Photographie, Fanlac, France
 
Beauty in Photography, Aperture, New York
1995
West from the Columbia, Aperture, New York
 
Cottonwoods, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
 
What We Bought: The New World: Denver 1973-1974
 
La Bellezza in Fotografia, Bollati Boringhieri, Italy
1994
Listening to the River: Seasons in the American West, Aperture, New York
 
Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews, Aperture, New York
1989
To Make It Home: Photographs of the American West, Aperture, New York
1988
Perfect Times, Perfect Places, Aperture, New York
1986
Los Angeles Spring, Aperture, New York
1985
Summer Nights, Aperture, New York
1983
Our Lives and Our Children: Photographs Taken Near the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, Aperture, New York
 
The American Space (Introduction) Wesleyan University Press, Connecticut
1981
Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values, Aperture, New York
1980
From the Missouri West, Aperture, New York
1978
Prairie, The Denver Art Museum, Colorado
1977
Denver: A Photographic Survey of the Metropolitan Area, Colorado Associated University Press, Boulder, Colorado
1974
The New West: Landscapes Along the Colorado Front Range, Colorado Associated Univ. Press, Boulder, Colorado
 
The Architecture and Art of Early Hispanic Colorado, Colorado Associated Univ. Press, Boulder, Colorado
1970
White Churches of the Plains: Examples from Colorado, Colorado Assoc. University Press, Boulder, Colorado

Public Collections

Addison Gallery of American Art, Massachusetts
 
Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York
 
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
 
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
 
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
 
Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia
 
Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland
 
Boulder Public Library, Colorado
 
Bowdoin College, Maine
 
Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, Canada
 
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York
 
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio
 
Colgate University, New York
 
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado
 
Colorado State Museum, Denver, Colorado
 
Denver Art Museum, Colorado
 
Fond Regional d'Art Contemporain Champagne Ardennes (Reims), France
 
Fond Regional d'Art Contemporain Lorraine (Metz), France
 
Fond Regional d'Art Contemporain Rhone-Alps (Musee d'Art Moderne, Saint Etienne), France
 
Fond National d'Art Moderne, Paris, France
 
International Museum of Photography, Eastman House, Rochester, New York
 
Israel Art Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
 
J. Paul Getty Museum, California
 
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
 
Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin
 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin
 
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
 
Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
 
Museum of Modern Art, New York
 
Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
 
Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, California
 
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
 
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
 
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada
 
New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico
 
Oakland Museum of Art, California
 
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
 
Portland Art Museum, Oregon
 
Princeton University, New Jersey
 
Seattle Art Museum, Washington
 
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nevada
 
Sprengel Museum Hanover, Germany
 
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany
 
Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
 
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
 
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
 
Visual Studies Workshop, New York
 
Washington Art Consortium, Seattle, Washington
 
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
 
Williams College, Massachusetts
 
Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut