Under Construction: New Photomontage. February 2-April 2, 1988.

Cranbrook Academy of Art, 1988. By Carl Toth with introduction by Roy Slade. Exhibition of 50 large works by 14 contemporary artists. Photographers: John Baldessari, Victor Burgin, Jo Ann Callis, Robert Fichter, Robert Frank; Gilbert and George; Robert Heinecken, Joan Lyons, Martha Madigan, Joyce Neimanas, Bart Parker, Susan Rankaitis, Victor Schrager, and John Wood.  Stapled wraps, 22 pages with translucent printed cover. Fine.   Summary:

Under Construction: New Photomontage (February 2–April 2, 1988) is a rare and highly influential exhibition catalog published by the Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Featuring an insightful introductory essay by acclaimed photographer, educator, and long-time Cranbrook photography department chair Carl Toth, this 21-page publication documents a crucial late-1980s critical investigation into the re-emergence, manipulation, and conceptual transformation of the photomontage medium.

The Curatorial Premise: Rebuilding the Cut-and-Paste

Carl Toth's introduction frames the title, Under Construction, as a double entendre referencing both the physical, hands-on assembly of layered imagery and the shifting, deconstructive nature of contemporary postmodern art theory.

Rather than treating photomontage as a dated historical technique from the early Dada or Soviet Constructivist movements, Toth and the exhibition argue that a new vanguard of late-20th-century artists were using the medium to dissect media manipulation, corporate advertising, personal identity, and the unstable nature of photographic truth.

An Elite Roster of Artists

The catalog serves as an exceptional cross-section of early postmodernism and conceptual photography, bringing together a diverse group of international and American masters who challenged "straight" photography through physical intervention, multi-negative printing, and collage:

• Postmodern Masters and Institutional Critique: The catalog features foundational work by John Baldessari(known for his iconic geometric paint-dot interventions on found imagery), Victor Burgin (blending rigorous semiotic text and image to critique commodification), and British duo Gilbert & George (utilizing massive, grid-like hand-colored photographic tableaus).

• The Photo-Guerrillas and Media Interrogators: Features Robert Heinecken, the "photographic saboteur" who collaged and altered mass-media magazines to expose societal obsessions with sex and violence, alongside Joyce Neimanas and her frantic, grid-like Polaroid SX-70 collage assemblies.

• The Poetic and Material Explorers: Includes the ethereal, large-scale blueprint and mixed-media works of Susan Rankaitis, the highly theatrical studio stagings of Jo Ann Callis, and the ghostlike, solarized organic exposures of Martha Madigan.

• The Avant-Garde Veterans: Rounding out the checklist are iconic imagery and experimental works from cinematic documentarian Robert Frank, printmaking pioneers Robert Fichter, Joan Lyons, Bart Parker, Victor Schrager, and multi-media artist John Wood.

Significance

Under Construction: New Photomontage remains a highly prized collector's item and a critical reference manual for late-20th-century art history. Produced under the visionary eye of Carl Toth at Cranbrook—an institution legendary for pushing the boundaries of design and experimental craft—the catalog successfully codified how the ancient act of slicing up and reassembling pictures had evolved into the ultimate artistic weapon for navigating the media-saturated landscape of the late 1980s.