Arnold Odermatt Photographs

March 11 - April 20, 2003

A Volkswagen Beetle slowly sinks into a beautiful remote lake; a demolished minibus lies on its top surrounded by pristine nature; two Volkswagens stand crushed together after a head-on collision. Such images make up the typically abandoned accident scenes in Arnold Odermatt's photographs. Born in 1925 in the small Swiss town of Oberdorf, Odermatt was the first photographer of the local police station in the canton of Nidwalden to capture accidents and the activities of his colleagues on film. His color photographs create a narrative portfolio of a range of police occupations; his accident photographs are shot in black and white. These strikingly beautiful, peculiar, and often humorous images, created between 1939 and 1993, have only recently been discovered by the art world.

In 2001 Odermatt's photographs were exhibited at the 49th Venice Biennial, the first major public venue of his work. In 2002, the Art Institute of Chicago introduced American audiences to his work with an exhibition. The present exhibition is the second showing of Arnold Odermatt's work at an American museum.

This exhibition is part of the Museum's Contemporary Projects series.