After the Gold Rush: Contemporary Photographs From the Collection October 19, 2011

Recent tumult at home and abroad has prompted soul-searching in some quarters of America, and many people have a sense that the promise of our founding ideals and the positive international sway we once exerted are in eclipse. Recent flare-ups over art and censorship echo the "culture wars" of the 1980s and 1990s, which, with an economic collapse and a war seemingly in a stalemate reminiscent of the 1970s, add to the feeling of deja vu. While previous exhibitions in this gallery have revolved around the nature of photography itself or historical examinations of a formal or aesthetic concept, this installation gathers works made since 1979 that address the culture at large.