Anne Wilkes Tucker

Tucker at the 2017 Texas Book Festival

Anne Wilkes Tuckeris an American retired museumcuratorof photographic works. She retired in June 2015.

Life and work

Tucker was born inBaton Rouge, Louisiana.She received a B.A. in Art History fromRandolph Macon Woman's CollegeinLynchburg, Virginiain 1967, and anA.A.Sin photographic illustration fromRochester Institute of Technologyin 1968. In 1972, she earned aMaster of Fine Artsin Photographic History from theVisual Studies WorkshopinRochester, New York,studying underNathan LyonsandBeaumont Newhall.

While in graduate school, she worked as a research assistant at theGeorge Eastman Housein Rochester; as a research associate at the Gernsheim Collection at theUniversity of Texas,Austin; and as a curatorial intern in the photography department of theMuseum of Modern Art,New York with a grant from theNew York State Council for the Arts.

Tucker began working for theMuseum of Fine Arts, Houston(MFAH) in 1976, when it possessed virtually no photographs. In February of that year,Target Storesmade its first donation to MFAH to begin the Target Collection of American Photography. The MFAH Photography department was established in December, when Tucker was hired as a consultant to act as curator of photography. In 1978, she became the MFAH curator, and in 1984 she was named the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography. She has increased the museum's holdings of photographs to over 24,000 in 2008.

Tucker organized more than forty exhibitions for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and elsewhere, including retrospectives forBrassaï,Robert Frank,Louis Faurer,George Krause,Ray Metzker,andRichard Misrach;as well as surveys on Czech avant-garde photography, a survey of the history of Japanese photography, and a selection from the Allan Chasanoff Collection.

Many of her exhibitions led to the publication of catalogues and books of photographs. Her bookThe Woman's Eyeincludes the work of ten women photographers:Gertrude Käsebier,Frances Benjamin Johnston,Margaret Bourke-White,Dorothea Lange,Berenice Abbott,Barbara Morgan,Diane Arbus,Alisa Wells,Judy DaterandBea Nettles.Tucker states, "The Woman's Eyerepresents the first major attempt to bring together notable photographs by women and to consider, through them, the role played by sexual identity both in the creation and the evaluation of photographic art. "In a 2003 interview withTexas Monthly Magazineshe comments: "When I wroteThe Woman's Eyein 1973, very few women photographers were accepted in the elite of the field. That is no longer true. Photography has also had many important women as photo historians and curators.Nancy Newhall,Alison Gernsheim,Gi sắc le Freund,andGrace Mayerwere some of the important early women historians. I knew Nancy Newhall and Grace Mayer and admired both very much. "

Tucker retired from the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in June 2015.

Publications

• The Woman's Eye(1973).
• Unknown Territory: Photographs by Ray K. Metzker.Houston:Museum of Fine Arts,1984.ISBN978-0890900338.Photographs byRay Metzker.Accompanies an exhibition.
• Robert Frank: New York to Nova Scotia(1986).
• Brassaï: the eye of Paris(1999).
• This was the Photo League: compassion and the camera from the Depression to the Cold War(2001).
• Louis Faurer(2002).
• Target III, in sequence: photographic sequences from the Target Collection of American Photography(1982).
• Chaotic Harmony Contemporary Korean Photography(2009).
• War/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath.New Haven, CT:Yale University Press,2012.ISBN978-0300177381.Edited by Tucker and Will Michels with Natalie Zelt.
• George Krause: a Retrospective.Houston, TX:Rice University Press,1991.ISBN978-0892633098.Photographs byGeorge Krause.Edited by Tucker.

Awards

• 1983:Guggenheim Fellowshipfrom theJohn Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
• 2001: "America's Best Curator" byTime.
• 2005:International Awardfrom thePhotographic Society of Japan.
• 2006: Focus Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Griffin Museum of Photography.
• Alumnae Achievement award from Randolph Macon Women's College.
• Fellowship from theNational Endowment for the Arts.
• Fellowship from theGetty Center.
• Fellowship from theHarry Ransom Centerat theUniversity of Texas at Austin.
• Fellowship from the Dora Maar House,Ménerbes,France.
• Voted one of the top fifty most influential people in America byAmerican Photomagazine.
• 2013: Special jury recognition, PhotoBook of the Year,Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook AwardsforWar/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath.
• 2013 Best Photography Book, Kraszna-Krausz Awards forWar/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath.
• 2019: Award for Curatorship and Honorary Fellowship of theRoyal Photographic Society,Bristol.

External links

• "The Exhibitionist"by Richard Lacayo,Time,2001.
• "A Q&A with Anne Wilkes Tucker"by Nora Varty,Texas Monthly,2003.