It is rare to meet an artist who has fallen into oblivion after gaining significant recognition. This is the case ofAnn Treer (also known as Agatha Reimann), a Hungarian-born photographer who created a small but concise body of photographs in the 1950s and 1960s. Robert Mann Gallery presents an exhibition of Treer’s beautiful and sensitive works, opening March 8, 2023.
Treer died in 1985 and left behind a small collection of vintage prints nestled among the hundreds of prints on David Vestal’s Estate. Vestal was her husband, her confidant and inspiration for photography, and a well-known photographer, writer and researcher in his own right. Vestal wrote in Treer’s obituary: “I once embarrassed her by saying she was the only photographer I had ever admired. But it’s the truth. When we went on set together, she kept bringing back pictures that I would have liked to take. I never felt that for someone else’s work”.
Ann Treer was born in Vienna in 1922. During World War II she lived in Budapest, working alongside her father in a news agency. She was half-Jewish, and her political beliefs often led her to attempt to bias the news against the Nazi occupation. His strong views persevered in his resistance to the communist government after the war; she became a displaced person in Italy, then immigrated to Australia, where she began photographing. His mother, who lived in New York, sent him a one-way ticket to move again. Treer met her future husband and fellow picture exhibitor David Vestal in one of Sid Grossman’s classes at the New York Film & Photo League in the early 1950s. The two were married for 24 years.
Treer’s images, mostly shot in and around New York City, were sensitive, moody and atmospheric. His work touched Hugh Edwards, director of the photography department at the Art Institute of Chicago, who gave him a solo exhibition in 1968 and acquired a number of his works for their permanent collection. Treer’s photographs were also exhibited in 1958 and 1960 and collected by the Museum of Modern Art. Treer’s work was exhibited at the Image Gallery in New York in 1959 and the Midtown “Y” Gallery in 1972. His work is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, and the the New York Public Library.
Ann Treer: A Moment In New York
March 8 – April 28, 2023
Robert Mann Gallery
14 East 80th Street, Penthouse
New York, NY 10075
212.989.7600
[email protected]
Hours: By appointment
