Elvis is in the building!

AUBURN, AL- The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University presents Elvis at 21, New York to Memphis: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer, on view in the Bill L. Harbert Gallery from October 10, 2009–January 9, 2010, and organized in conjunction with Govinda Gallery, Washington, D.C. Assigned by Elvis’s record label, RCA Victor, for a one-day photo shoot in 1956, Wertheimer was so struck by the rising young star’s charisma and photogenic persona, that he felt compelled to continue documenting the everyday moments in Elvis’s life during that transformative year. This exhibition of more than forty gelatin-silver prints at JCSM precedes a planned national tour of Wertheimer’s images reproduced as pigment prints, organized by the Smithsonian Institution, and offers audiences an opportunity to view the works in their original format. The poignant images portray an innocent period in Presley’s life soon to vanish in the wake of his superstardom, and constitute an important visual document of post-World War II America.

Alfred Wertheimer (American, born in Germany, 1929) began his career as a photojournalist in the early 1950s, producing work for Colliers, Life, Look, and Paris Match. He covered the 1960 presidential campaigns of John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Other subjects of his photography include Leonard Bernstein, Annette Funicello, the Hassidic Jews of Brooklyn, Eleanor Roosevelt, Nina Simone and Elizabeth Taylor. Wertheimer also worked as one of the principal cinematographers for the documentary film Woodstock.

Open since 2003, the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University is Alabama’s only university art museum. Serving as the gateway into Auburn University, the museum has a wide-ranging permanent collection, which includes more than 100 Audubon prints, Tibetan bronzes dating from as early as the 15th century and works by important American modern artists, such as Arthur Dove, Georgia O’Keeffe and Lyonel Feininger. The museum rotunda features a three-tiered, hand-blown glass chandelier created especially for the space by internationally renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly. The museum experience continues onto the grounds with fifteen acres of gardens, walking paths and water features complete with outdoor sculpture, including Spinoff, created by Auburn alumna Jean Woodham.

Related exhibitions and programming:

Elvis’s America: 1956 eight part lecture series 4pm Tuesday, September 22, 2009 and will continue every Tuesday until November 10, 2009 in the museum auditorium.

Elvis & Friends: Glitter Mosaics by Joni Mabe will be on display at JCSM from October 10, 2009–January 9, 2010 in Gallery C.

JCSM’s Sixth Birthday will be celebrated on October 11, 2009 from 1 – 4pm.

Contacts:
Dennis Harper, Curator of Exhibitions and Collections (334) 844-1419 dharper@auburn.edu

Andy Tennant, Assistant Director (334) 844 – 3081 tennawa@auburn.edu