Lewis Baltz

Acquired from the photographer in the 1970s

By descent to the present owner

In 1967 while an undergraduate at the San Francisco Art Institute, Lewis Baltz began ‘The Highway Series,’ one of the most influential bodies of work within the history of photography. Later renamed the ‘Prototype Works,’ Baltz trained his camera on what many would regard as generally unremarkable subjects: signage, walls plastered with stucco, boarded windows and doors, motel rooms, and vacant urbanscapes. 

Early exhibition prints are rare. The qualities of these prints are highly distinctive: the prints were dry-mounted flush to a second piece of archivally processed photographic paper, edges were blackened with India ink, the corners were diagonally clipped, and then the prints were mounted to board slightly warmer in tone than the print. This presentation method ensures the photograph stands apart from, rather than sinks into, its surroundings.