Richard Gordon, Jerusalem 1967 Vintage Silver Gelatin Photograph Western Wall Kotel Hamaaravi, 1967

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Richard Gordon was born in Chicago in 1945. He studied Political Science at the University of Chicago and did not … Read more Richard Gordon was born in Chicago in 1945. He studied Political Science at the University of Chicago and did not begin photographing until he worked at a photography studio in 1965. Early in Gordon’s career, Robert Frank critiqued his work and stated that he “loved photography too much.” Gordon frequently makes photographic references in his work and pays homage to the photographers who influenced him: Eugène Atget, Walker Evans, Robert Frank and Helen Levitt. Bookmaking has been an important element of Gordon’s photography from the beginning; he created his own press, Chimaera Press, and published Meta Photographs (Chimaera Press, 1978), One More for the Road: The Autobiography of a Friendship 1966-1996 (Flâneur Bookworks, 1996), American Surveillance: Someone to Watch Over Me (Chimaera Press, 2009), and Notes from the Field (Chimaera Press, 2012), as well as handmade and limited edition books.

Richard Gordon’s photographs are represented in many institutional collections including: Art Institute of Chicago; Bibliothéque National, Paris; Centre Nationale de la Photographie, Paris; Corcoran Gallery of Art; J. P. Getty Museum (Wagstaff Collection); Library of Congress; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; New York Public Library; Oakland Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Art; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Stanford Museum of Art; and University of Colorado, Boulder.

From the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Collection
The Ruttenbergs are longtime art lovers who have collected abstract expressionist paintings, African art, sculpture, graphics, old watches and photographs-lots and lots of photographs.
They started collecting them in the 1960s when the medium was still the stepchild of the arts. They kept collecting until they had more than 3,000 prints, 99 of which are in the Art Institute exhibit, ``The Intuitive Eye:
Photographs from the Collection of David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg.``
The show encompasses the entire history of photography with black-and-white and color prints from every genre, It includes street photography by Walker Evans and Garry Winogrand, glamour shots by Edward Steichen and Richard Avedon, nudes by Robert Mapplethorpe and Nicholas Muray, painted photographs by Ellen Carey and Holly Roberts, social documentary by Margaret Bourke-White and Lewis Hine, an architectural study by Ansel Adams, portraits by Irving Penn and Arnold Newman and works by dozens of other photographers. Patty Carroll » Henri Cartier-Bresson » Louis Faurer » Ralph Gibson » Luis González Palma » Joseph Jachna » Annie Leibovitz » Irving Penn » Herb Ritts » Sebastião Salgado » Aaron Siskind » Sandy Skoglund » Jerry N. Uelsmann » Roman Vishniac » Andy Warhol » Weegee » William Wegman & others

From the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Collection
The Ruttenbergs are longtime art lovers who have collected abstract expressionist paintings, African art, sculpture, graphics, old watches and photographs-lots and lots of photographs.
They started collecting them in the 1960s when the medium was still the stepchild of the arts. They kept collecting until they had more than 3,000 prints, 99 of which are in the Art Institute exhibit, ``The Intuitive Eye:
Photographs from the Collection of David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg.``
The show encompasses the entire history of photography with black-and-white and color prints from every genre, It includes street photography by Walker Evans and Garry Winogrand, glamour shots by Edward Steichen and Richard Avedon, nudes by Robert Mapplethorpe and Nicholas Muray, painted photographs by Ellen Carey and Holly Roberts, social documentary by Margaret Bourke-White and Lewis Hine, an architectural study by Ansel Adams, portraits by Irving Penn and Arnold Newman and works by dozens of other photographers. Patty Carroll » Henri Cartier-Bresson » Louis Faurer » Ralph Gibson » Luis González Palma » Joseph Jachna » Annie Leibovitz » Irving Penn » Herb Ritts » Sebastião Salgado » Aaron Siskind » Sandy Skoglund » Jerry N. Uelsmann » Roman Vishniac » Andy Warhol » Weegee » William Wegman & others

The exhibit and its title reflect retired attorney David Ruttenberg`s style of collecting-spontaneous, compulsive and straight from the heart. He bought what he liked, new artists along with name artists, choosing on intuition rather than investment potential.
``If I saw that Chuck Close, I would look at it and come back in a few days and look at it again and go home and decide just where it would look best,`` says Sarajean Ruttenberg, nodding at the Close triptych.
He has given large supplies of time and prints to public photography collections, including those of the Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. He chairs the acquisitions committee for the Art Institute`s photography department. He is a member of the acquisitions committee at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and of the chancellor`s committee at the University of California, Riverside, which organized an exhibit from his collection last year.

He started his photography collection in 1965 when a client and former student of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy gave him one of Moholy`s famous photomontages, which Ruttenberg hung in his office.

. ``None of our friends had bought the abstract expressionists when we came home with the Jackson Pollock in 1951. Our friends said, `Are you crazy?` ``
The painting by Pollock, then an unknown, was one of the first pieces in their collection. As David Ruttenberg pursued photographs, his collection remained on the cutting edge of the art world with purchases of innovative conceptual and postmodern work along with classic prints.
The only possible things missing are those cosmic Western landscapes. ``I never had a feeling for the landscape,`` David Ruttenberg says. He and Sarajean did, of course, attend Ansel Adams` black-tie 80th birthday party in Carmel, Calif., in 1982.

Provenance: Ruttenberg collection.
David Ruttenberg`s style of collecting was spontaneous, compulsive and straight from the heart. He bought what he liked, new artists along with name artists, choosing on intuition rather than investment potential.
``If I saw that Chuck Close, I would look at it and come back in a few days and look at it again and go home and decide just where it would look best,`` says Sarajean Ruttenberg, nodding at the Close triptych.
He has given large supplies of time and prints to public photography collections, including those of the Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. He chairs the acquisitions committee for the Art Institute`s photography department. He is a member of the acquisitions committee at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and of the chancellor`s committee at the University of California, Riverside, which organized an exhibit from his collection last year.

He started his photography collection in 1965 when a client and former student of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy gave him one of Moholy`s famous photomontages, which Ruttenberg hung in his office.

. ``None of our friends had bought the abstract expressionists when we came home with the Jackson Pollock in 1951. Our friends said, `Are you crazy?` ``
The painting by Pollock, then an unknown, was one of the first pieces in their collection. As David Ruttenberg pursued photographs, his collection remained on the cutting edge of the art world with purchases of innovative conceptual and postmodern work along with classic prints.
The only possible things missing are those cosmic Western landscapes. ``I never had a feeling for the landscape,`` David Ruttenberg says. He and Sarajean did, of course, attend Ansel Adams` black-tie 80th birthday party in Carmel, Calif., in 1982. See less