NORWICH, ENGLAND.- The Norwich Gallery presents "Jeff Wall - Landscapes," on view through February 2, 2003. This exhibition of the influential Canadian artist Jeff Wall shows his use of photography to study the process of settlement on landscapes, or cityscapes, and to examine the meaning of landscape. "A successful picture is a source of pleasure, and I believe that it is the pleasure experienced in art that makes possible any critical reflection about its subject matter or its form."

The exhibition of Jeff Wall Landscapes is set in the context of Manchester Art Gallery’s collection of 18th century secular Dutch landscapes and Norwich Castle collection of the Norwich School’s early 19th century depiction of disappearing rural communities at the time of industrialization.

Jeff Wall was born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1946. He began making art in the late sixties, before interrupting this activity to study art history, and resume it in the mid-seventies on a different basis. By then, he had realized that photography was an open medium, which enabled him to satisfy apparently contradictory aspirations: on one hand, an interest for a "neorealist", documentary type of representation; on the other, a reference to aspects of painting. The model for this was cinema, or what he called "cinematography", of which he began using some of the techniques and procedures.

His pictures are carefully staged, with actors and props, and are large color images on transparent film, presented in back-lit aluminum boxes of the kind mostly used in advertisements. This was a new visual object (since then widely imitated), which had the appeal and radiance of the filmic image, the scale and poise of traditional painting, and the density and the sheer realism of the street photograph. The street image had become "monumentalized", not only in scale but also in complexity. Among the more frequent themes to be encountered in the early works are scenes of urban life (Milk, 1984, Diatribe, 1985, The Storyteller, 1986), of racial tension (Mimic, 1982), of poverty (Bad Goods, 1984, Eviction Struggle, 1988), which carry a strong political undertone. But there are also urban landscapes, such as The Old Prison, 1987, Coastal Motifs, 1989, The Crooked Path, 1991, with no apparent drama or narrative.

Jeff Wall’s works often have something enigmatic about them- an invitation to interpret, but also to allow our imagination to range freely. The imaginary component of his works has been emphasized by the use of digital technology in some of the more recent works, such as Dead Troops Talk, 1991-92, A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai), 1993, or The Flooded Grave, 1998 - 2000. Because of the complex montages and layering allowed by the technology, the fantastic becomes an important element of the works. Yet, the ambiguity inherent in many of them is not just a factor of the technique used. In the large black and white prints which Jeff Wall has been making in recent years, something seems to have come to a standstill, the drama, the more theatrical aspects seem to have receded, but a mystery remains, a delusive quietness of simple appearances (Cyclist, 1996, Passerby, 1996). His interiors, in particular, have a haunted quality, as in Housekeeping, 1996.