The Lukowicz Legacy: A Conversation with Sean O'Rourke and William Williams

219 South 6th Street,Philadelphia PA 19106

04 February, 2022

Description

This event is part of The Athenaeum's "Portraits of the City" exhibition. Haverford College Professor of Fine Arts, William Williams, and Sean O’Rourke, co-author of Philadelphia Portraits of a City discuss the creation of the book. Come early to see the exhibition before the event as part of the Athenaeum's First Friday evening! Refreshments served 5:00-6:00pm. Book signing to follow. About William Williams: William Earle Williams is the Audrey A. and John L. Dusseau Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Fine Arts and Curator of Photography at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania. His photographs have been exhibited widely including in group and solo exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art; Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University, Durham, NC; Museum of Fine Arts Houston; Smith College, Northampton, MA; George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; and National Gallery, Washington, D.C. His work is represented in many public collections including the Cleveland Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts Houston; Metropolitan Museum of Art and New York Public Library, both New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and National Gallery, Washington, D.C. Williams has received individual artist fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. About the Exhibition: An Iowa native, Jerome Lukowicz (1948-2018) received his B.A. in English/Creative writing. When he moved to Philadelphia he photographed for himself, and opened a commercial photography studio in Old City. Well-known for his engaging portraits, for 14 years he made delightful photographs of the guests at the Foundation for Architecture’s Beaux Arts Ball. As an artist in search of life’s elusive and evanescent beauty and truth, in his last decade of life he turned to creating portraits of his adopted city. The Athenaeum was pleased to add the Lukowicz archive (including more than 2000 prints, negatives and digital images) to its photographic collections and is delighted to present this selection of his work, all of which appear in his book, Philadelphia: Portraits of the City. The Athenaeum was established in 1814 as a subscription library, at a time when the free public library system did not exist and collections of books, available for reading or research, were still mostly limited to institutions, schools or colleges. The Athenaeum of Philadelphia nurtures curiosity in members and neighbors, strengthening community through learning and discourse. The Athenaeum of Philadelphia is one of 16 membership libraries that collaborate through the Membership Libraries Group. Some, like the Charleston (est. 1748), New York Society (est. 1754), and Newport (est. 1741) libraries, date from the 18th Century.