Over the past 30 years, Dijkstra has produced a sensitive and eloquent body of photographic and video work. In her large-scale photographs and video installations, she is particularly interested in moments of transition, especially adolescence, a time when individuals build their own identities and begin to present themselves in the way they wish to be perceived. Known for her acclaimed photographs of bathers—adolescents Dijkstra met on beaches from Poland to South Carolina—her subjects range from teenagers to mothers who have just given birth, bull fighters fresh from the ring and military recruits. In contrast to her earlier videos of visitors and dancers in nightclubs.

Rineke Dijkstra, Almerisa, Wormer, The Netherlands, June 23, 1996
Chromogenic print; framed: 50 1/4 x 42 1/2 in. Milwaukee Art Museum, purchase, Christine A. Symchych and James P. McNulty Acquisition Fund. Copyright Rineke Dijkstra.

Rineke Dijkstra, Almerisa, Leidschendam, The Netherlands, December 9, 2000. Chromogenic print; framed: 50 1/4 x 42 1/2 in. Milwaukee Art Museum, purchase, Christine A. Symchych and James P. McNulty Acquisition Fund. Copyright Rineke Dijkstra.

Rineke Dijkstra, Almerisa, Zoetermeer, The Netherlands, March 24, 2007. Chromogenicprint; 37× 29 1/2 in. (93.98 × 74.93 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, purchase, Christine A. Symchych and James P. McNulty Acquisition Fund. Copyright Rineke Dijkstra.

Accompanying the Rehearsals exhibition is The Lives of Other: Portraits from the Photography Collection. This presentation of works from the Museum’s photography collection explores the interest many photographers have had in understanding how people present themselves to the world. The exhibition is organized thematically and includes an important new acquisition, Rineke Dijkstra’s Almerisa (1994–ongoing), purchased through the Christine A. Symchych and James P. McNulty Acquisition Fund. The work is an 11-part series that follows the transition of a young Bosnian refugee as she adapts to life in the West and grows from a girl to a woman with her own child.

Both exhibitions are sponsored by the Herzfeld Foundation and on view through January 2, 2017.

Rineke Dijkstra: Rehearsals and The Lives of Other: Portraits from the Photography Collection
September 9, 2016–January 2, 2017
Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts
Milwaukee Art Museum
Milwaukee, WI

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“What gives the strength of dynamite to the photo-poster and pamphlet? First of all, its motto is humanism. And, of course, the ability to see in subjects something new, that which others do not see, but that they should by all means see.”—Aleksandr Zhitomirsky, The Art of Political Photomontage, 1983

Zhitomirsky began publishing drawings in 1929. He established his reputation as a leading propaganda artist in World War II, when he adopted the techniques of celebrated German photomonteur John Heartfield to striking effect. Zhitomirsky’s photomontage leaflets, dropped on German troops by plane as part of an extensive psychological warfare campaign, caught the attention of many Nazi troops and, reportedly, of Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. “Choose! Like This or Like That” read the pamphlets in German, inviting soldiers to lay down their guns to spare their lives or perish in the long Russian winter, as many did.

Alexandr Zhitomirsky. It’s Time to Shoot Yourself, Herr Göring!, 1941. Ne boltai! Collection. © Vladimir Zhitomirsky.

Following the war, Zhitomirsky adapted his techniques and motifs to new current events: echoes of Hitler and Goebbels, for example, shaped representations of Harry Truman and Winston Churchill.

Aleksandr Zhitomirsky. Harry Truman: The Hysterical War Drummer, 1948. Ne boltai! Collection. © Vladimir Zhitomirsky.

Over time, however, a roster of new objects, and particularly animals, came to life in Zhitomirsky’s work. An airborne scorpion with the head of Uncle Sam, a lion in glasses devouring minarets and oil derricks, simians of various descriptions delivering harangues on television or sporting Wall Street suits—Zhitomirsky’s gift for grotesque satire became more compelling as it grew more fantastical.

Aleksandr Zhitomirsky. A Capitalist Shark, 1965. Ne boltai! Collection. © Vladimir Zhitomirsky.

“Humanism + Dynamite = The Soviet Photomontages of Aleksandr Zhitomirsky”
September 3, 2016–January 10, 2017
Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL

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The Saint Louis Art Museum will present Impressions of War, an exhibition featuring The Disasters of War, Francisco de Goya’s 80-plate contemplation of war and its aftereffects, as well as additional series of prints by three artists whose works equally respond to the darker side of war and its aftermath.

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Spanish, 1746-1828; plates from portfolio The Disasters of War, 1810-1820, published 1863; etching and lavis; 8 1/2 x 14 1/4 x 1 3/8 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, The Marian Cronheim Trust for Prints and Drawings 7:2015

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Spanish, 1746-1828; plates from portfolio The Disasters of War, 1810-1820, published 1863; etching and lavis; 8 1/2 x 14 1/4 x 1 3/8 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, The Marian Cronheim Trust for Prints and Drawings 7:2015

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, Spanish, 1746-1828; plates from portfolio The Disasters of War, 1810-1820, published 1863; etching and lavis; 8 1/2 x 14 1/4 x 1 3/8 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, The Marian Cronheim Trust for Prints and Drawings 7:2015

Responding to the French occupation of Spain by Napoleon Bonaparte between 1808 and 1814, The Disasters of War stands as one of the major achievements in the history of European art. Although Goya made the prints between 1810 and 1820, they were not formally published until 1863, more than three decades after his death.

The series broke ground with the intensity of its focus on war’s cruelties, yet the prints also shed light on the bravery of the Spanish people on the ground in the face of foreign occupation.

Impressions of War also includes print series by three other artists in France, Germany, and the United States from the 17th to the 21st centuries in which the artists respond—as Goya did—on a personal rather than an official level.

The artist’s fearless and personal approach to the topic of war sets it apart from official military imagery celebrating triumphs on the battlefield or the deaths of great generals. Instead, some plates concentrate on unmentionable brutality between soldiers and civilians as evidenced by the harrowing display in This is Worse, while others highlight the heroism of individuals, such as in Neither do These, in which women resist sexual attacks from the enemy.

“The Impressions of War”
Aug. 5 through Feb. 12, 2017
Saint Louis Art Museum
Saint Louis, MO

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