Jeff Wall

Canadian artist Jeff Wall is widely recognized as an innovative picture-maker whose dynamic photographs, both color and black-and-white, have affinities with painting and cinema. Their sense of scale comes from Wall’s interest in the tradition of painting, and their methods of production from his fascination with cinematography. A number of the pictures are photomontages — combinations of different negatives digitally interwoven to create engaging narratives — often illuminated on light boxes. This retrospective, co-organized by SFMOMA Director Neal Benezra, brings together more than 40 pieces spanning the period from the 1970s to the present for a rare look at Wall’s influential career. Accompanying his iconic works are three new pictures, including In front of a nightclub (2006), a promised gift to SFMOMA.

This exhibition is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Museum of Modern Art. The San Francisco presentation is made possible by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein.