September 15 - October 26, 2019
Artist’s reception: Sunday September 15, 2019
2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Starting in 1978, and continuing well after, artist and photographer Darryl Curran developed a project exploring the complex sociology of the art opening—and of related events such as lectures, discussions and parties—as these occurred in the rapidly expanding field of fine-art photography in Los Angeles. First titled L.A. Art Events, Curran’s focus soon narrowed to photography alone and it was renamed A Moment in Photo History. His methodology however remained constant. Each of Curran’s photographs features someone holding a clipboard (a conceit borrowed from Robert Cumming’s The Weight of Franchise Meat) conveying information about the particular art opening or photo-event depicted. Rinse and repeat. Curran’s efforts were “most intense during the 1980’s,” he recalls. But soon after, as photography was fully absorbed by the art market, and the argument for its importance no longer needed to be made, his activities in this regard slowed to a crawl. “In a way,” the artist observes somewhat wistfully, the very “success and acceptance of photography doomed the project.” And about that outcome, he concludes, “all is well.” Curran estimates that around 700 photographs were produced in this fashion of which more than 300 will be on view in this, his first one-person exhibition at As Is.