PHOTOGRAPHS
Groover, Jan
U.S. (1943 - 2012)
Untitled
1974
Chromogenic color print
3 1/8 x 6 7/16 in. (7.9 x 16.4 cm) image size; 24 x 19 3/4 in. (61 x 50.2 cm) mount board size; 3 7/16 x 6 13/16 in. (8.7 x 17.3 cm) sheet size
Monsen Study Collection of Photography, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen
FA 84.12

This untitled photograph is an example of Jan Groover’s early series focusing on cars, trucks, streets, and buildings. Groover would stand on the side of the freeway with her camera stationary on a tripod, releasing the shutter as the vehicle passed when the frame was empty. Captured in diptychs and triptychs, these works indicates changes in time and motion, referring to the photographic studies conducted by Eadweard Muybridge during the 19th century.

Starting her artistic career as a painter, Groover switched mediums to photography. In 1972, she stated “with photography, I didn’t have to make things up, everything was already there.” Following her diptych and triptych series, she moved into the kitchen to produce large close-up color still-lifes of utensils, plants and vegetables, often reflected in stainless steel surfaces. Using a variety of camera formats to affect perception, Groover creates abstract spatial arrangements in her still-life and landscape photography. A collection of her earlier work, The Attributes of Positions: Semantics of the Highway gives additional insight and examples of her composite photographs. -- Label copy for 150 Works of Art, October 1, 2005 to February 26, 2006.

In this work, Jan Groover places three almost identical photographs side-by-side, treating them as a single piece to be viewed together, rather than as three autonomous works. In doing so she highlights the repetition of forms in the images: the sharp, vertical line of the pole, the angular patch of grass, the arrow-like intrusion of the car. These strongly geometric shapes become more prominent than the objects they represent—not unlike the effect of repeating a word over and over again until its meaning becomes secondary to its sound. By juxtaposing straightforward photographs Groover undermines any documentary purpose they could serve individually, melting them into abstraction. -- Label copy for Material and Document: Experiments in Photography during the 1970s, November 4, 2011, to February 4, 2012.