The Hill Becomes the Valley

American Landscape Photography from the
P. John Owen Collection

January 26 - May 26, 2019 Admission

A recent bequest to Daum Museum of Contemporary Art greatly expands the museum’s holdings in the area of twentieth century American landscape photography. The gift comes from the late P. John Owen, a native Sedalian, who left the artworks to the Daum in memory of his parents, P. Cecil Owen and Marceille F. Owen, also former residents of Sedalia. Owen’s bequest includes 132 prints by 45 photographers that primarily portray the sublime beauty of the American West and Southwest in the spirit championed by the influential photographer Ansel Adams. The collection contains two prints by Adams, including his well-known photograph Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite of 1960. Other important artists found in the assembly include Paul Strand, Imogen Cunningham, Brett Weston, and Eliot Porter. Subjects range from awesome views of the Grand Canyon and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Canyon de Chelly.  Other prints focus on less identifiable, but no less powerful, studies of flora and fauna, approaching storms, and rippling sand dunes. Taken as a whole, the Owen collection is a celebration of the drama and splendor of America’s natural environments.