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Date: June 9, 1998
Princeton University Art Museum Receives Major Gift From Ford Motor Company
Collection of 106 photographs illustrates Rouge manufacturing plant
Princeton, N.J. -- Through a generous gift from the Ford Motor Company, The Art Museum, Princeton University, has acquired a unique collection of photographs of the famous Rouge manufacturing plan in Dearborn, Michigan. The collection, which consists of 106 photographs taken between 1992 and 1995 by British-born photographer Michael Kenna, will be known as the Ford Rouge Complex Collection.
"We are very grateful to the Ford Motor Company for this extraordinary gift to enrich our collection of photographs," said Professor Peter C. Bunnell, faculty curator of photography. "The works are especially important because of the significance of the site to both American industry and American art. An in-depth study such as this of a major industrial site is unusual, and gives the student and scholar an exceptional opportunity to study the working method of a major photographic artist."
The Rouge plant, once considered a symbol of American industrial might, is located on the banks of the Rouge River, 10 miles from Detroit. At the peak of its productivity the complex covered more than two square miles, and encompassed all the basic steps in automobile manufacturing, from raw materials to finished product.
Kenna’s photographs, made during 12 trips to the site, show the essential elements of the complex as it is today, including breathtaking panoramic views and small details of machine parts. Often taken at dawn or in the dark of night, Kenna’s photographs concentrate primarily on the interaction between the natural landscape and human-made structures. The most widely known comparative images of this site are those photographed and painted by Charles Sheeler in 1927, at the conclusion of the first major phase of the plant’s construction.
Michael Kenna’s work is widely exhibited and published, including Michael Kenna: A Twenty Year Retrospective (1994) with an introduction by Professor Bunnell. Kenna’s most recent publication is on the French gardens of André LeNotre. The photographer was born in 1953 in Widnes, Lancashire, England, and currently lives in San Francisco.
Professor Bunnell believes the prints will be particularly important for students in the Department of Art and Archaeology as well as those in American Studies, engineering and economics. Once the collection is catalogued and properly prepared, a selection of the images will be exhibited at Princeton and travel to other institutions. Fifty prints from the series entitled The Rouge were published in 1995, accompanied by a history of the complex by Lee R. Collins, formerly of the Ford Motor Company.
The Rouge Complex Collection is the second gift to the Art Museum from Ford. In 1988, the company contributed to the preparation of the Minor White retrospective exhibition by supporting the printing of the artist’s color photographs.
"The Art Museum has found an enlightened and valued friend in the Ford Motor Company," said Allen Rosenbaum, director of the Museum. "We are greatly indebted to them for the gift of these powerful and deeply affecting icons of industry and the American ethos, and their continuing support of the collection and the program in the history of photography at Princeton."
The Art Museum is open to the public without charge. Free highlights tours of the collection are given every Saturday at 2 p.m. The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and on major holidays. The Museum Shop closes at 5 p.m. The Museum is located in the middle of the Princeton University campus. Picasso’s large sculpture Head of a Woman stands in front. For further information, please call (609) 258-3788.