Culture Shock: Photography by John Gutmann

Currently on Display

Culture Shock focuses on an early period of creative flowering for the Jewish photographer, a German refugee who arrived in the U.S. during the Great Depression.  The exhibition showcases over 60 vivid images of American popular culture that Gutmann captured as only an outsider could.

For a virtual walk through the Culture Shock exhibition click below.

John Gutmann was born in Breslau, German (now Wroclaw, Poland) in 1905, the son of prosperous Jewish parents. Showing early artistic talent, he studied at Breslau’s University and the Academy of Arts and Crafts, a student of leading Expressionist artist Otto Müller. Following his graduation, he moved to Berlin to pursue his painting career while also teaching art. In 1933, as the Nazi regime consolidated its power, it issued the Professional Services Restoration Act, denying employment to “Non-Aryans”. Gutmann formulated a plan to leave Germany permanently. With minimal photographic experience he secured a contract with Press-Photo in Berlin and charted a course as a foreign correspondent based in San Francisco, California. Traveling on a Norwegian freighter from Rotterdam via the Panama canal, Gutmann arrived in San Francisco on January 1, 1934 to begin his new life.