Lee Friedlander: Signs

Lee Friedlander: Signs

MonoVisions Black & White Photo Contest 2025

Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to present Lee Friedlander: SIGNS, an exhibition examining the five-decade long obsession of this highly influential photographer. Since the early 1960s, Friedlander has focused on the signs that inscribe the American landscape, from hand-lettered ads to storefront windows to massive billboards.

Made in New York, San Francisco, and dozens of cities and small towns in between, Friedlander’s photographs record milk prices, cola ads, neon lights, road signs, graffiti, and movie marquees. Depicting these texts with precision and sly humor, Friedlander’s approach to America transcribes a sort of found poetry of commerce and desire. A large majority of works in the exhibition will be shown for the first time.

Also on view will be a group of 16 early Friedlander prints, made on the road in the 1970s, on travels across the United States.

Lee Friedlander (born 1934) began photographing in 1948. His work was included in the influential 1967 exhibition New Documents at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, curated by John Szarkowski. His many monographs include Self-Portrait; Cherry Blossom Time in Japan; Letters from the People; At Work; and Sticks and Stones, among others. One of the most important living photographers, Friedlander’s prints are held by major collections including the Art Institute of Chicago; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Whitney Museum of American Art, among many others.

Lee Friedlander
Signs
July 11 – August 17, 2019

Fraenkel Gallery
49 Geary St, 4th floor, San Francisco, CA 94108
fraenkelgallery.com

 Lee Friedlander, New Haven, Connecticut, 1980

Lee Friedlander, New Haven, Connecticut, 1980

 Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1974

Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1974

 Lee Friedlander, Kentucky, 1965

Lee Friedlander, Kentucky, 1965

 Lee Friedlander, Nashville, Tennessee, 1968

Lee Friedlander, Nashville, Tennessee, 1968

 Lee Friedlander, Arkansas, 1961

Lee Friedlander, Arkansas, 1961

 Lee Friedlander, Florida, 1963

Lee Friedlander, Florida, 1963

 Lee Friedlander, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1963

Lee Friedlander, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1963

 Lee Friedlander, Chicago, 1968

Lee Friedlander, Chicago, 1968

 Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1986

Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1986


MonoVisions Black & White Photo Contest 2025