Exhibition Opening

G.E. Kidder Smith Photographer: At Home in America

Sunday, May 22, 2022

2:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Exhibition is free (this day only) House tours will still cost and run as normal. 

After his far-flung travels over the decades in Europe, G. E. Kidder Smith (in the company of his wife and collaborator Dorothea) turned to his own country and produced a series of ambitious photographic surveys focused on the built environment of the United States. The exhibition at the Edith Farnsworth House will present 30 prints from the G.E. Kidder Smith archive at the IUAV Archivio Progetti in Venice (these will be donated to the Edith Farnsworth House after the exhibition closing) along with a sampling of his published books (to be presented in the famous/infamous armoire). Since the Edith Farnsworth House provocatively changed the way Americans understood residential architecture, the exhibition selection will include a series of pictures documenting the evolution of American house ranging from Oak Alley [Vacherie, Louisiana] and Stanley-Whitman House [Farmington, Connecticut, to twentieth century icons such as the Robie House in Chicago. Significantly many of the houses photographed by GEKS are now National Historic Landmarks.

The exhibition opening includes an introduction by Reed Kroloff, Dean & The Rowe Family College of Architecture Endowed Chair at IIT College of Architecture, and presentation by co-curators Angelo Maggi (IUAV) and Michelangelo Sabatino (IIT) about the exhibition and new book at 3 pm. The exhibition includes a screening of the television program narrated by G. E. Kidder Smith: The American Odyssey (1976) (Italian and English versions). Copies of the book will be available through our gift shop. Refreshments provided!