Allan Sekula
Allan Sekula (January 15, 1951 – August 10, 2013) was an American photographer, writer, filmmaker, theorist and critic. From 1985 until his death in 2013, he taught at California Institute of the Arts. His work frequently focused on large economic systems, or "the imaginary and material geographies of the advanced capitalist world." He received fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Getty Research Institute, Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Atelier Calder and was named a 2007 USA Broad Fellow.
Allan Sekula
- Born
- 1951 · Erie.
- Died
- 2013 · Los Angeles.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- photographer · artist · filmmaker · documentarian · art theorist · critic · teacher
- Education
- University of California and San Diego
- Honours
- Guggenheim Fellowship
- Languages
- English
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Allan Sekula (January 15, 1951 – August 10, 2013) was an American photographer, writer, filmmaker, theorist and critic. From 1985 until his death in 2013, he taught at California Institute of the Arts. His work frequently focused on large economic systems, or "the imaginary and material geographies of the advanced capitalist world." He received fellowships and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Getty Research Institute, Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Atelier Calder and was named a 2007 USA Broad Fellow.
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Life and work
Life and work
Allan Sekula studied at University of California, San Diego. The recorded working language is English. Employment is recorded with California Institute of the Arts. Work by Allan Sekula is recorded in the collections of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Museum of Modern Art, Tate and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship.
Sekula was born in 1951 in Erie, Pennsylvania, of Polish and English descent. His family moved to San Pedro, California in the early 1960s. He graduated with his MFA from the University of California, San Diego, in 1974, after having obtained his BA in biology from the same institution. Sekula's principal medium was photography, which he employed to create exhibitions, books and films. His secondary medium was the written word, employing essays and other critical texts in concert with images to create a multi-level critique of contemporary late capitalism. His works make critical contributions on questions of social reality and globalization, and focus on what he described as "the imaginary and material geographies of the advanced capitalist world". He was a film/video-maker, frequently collaborating with film theorist Noël Burch on projects such as The Reagan Tapes (1984) (with regard to Ronald Reagan), and The Forgotten Space (2010). He served on the faculty of the Photography and Media Program at the California Institute of the Arts. Sekula died on August 10, 2013, aged 62, following a long struggle with gastric-esophageal cancer.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1951
Allan Sekula was born in 1951 at Erie.
2013
Allan Sekula died in 2013 at Los Angeles.
Places
Named by the record
Places
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Erie.
Birth place
Los Angeles.
Death place
Books
• Photography Against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works 1973–1983 (1984). • Fish Story (1995). • London: Mack, 2018.. With a new introduction by Laleh Khalili. • Dead Letter Office (1997). • Geography Lesson: Canadian Notes (1997). • Seemannsgarn (2002). • Titanic's Wake (2003). • Performance under Working Conditions (2003). • A Dialogue with Allan Sekula (2005). • Facing the Music: Documenting Walt Disney Hall and the Redevelopment of Downtown Los Angeles. East of Borneo Books, 2015.. A project by Sekula. Edited by Edward Dimendberg, with contributions by Sekula, Louis Adamic, James Baker, Laura Diamond Dixit, Anthony Hernandez, Karin Apollonia Müller, Leonard Nadel, and Billy Woodberry.
Films
• A Short Film for Laos (2006) • The Forgotten Space (2010)
Collections
Sekula's work is held in the following public collections: • Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Vienna, Austria • Museo de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain • Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain • Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands • Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA • National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece • Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio • Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA • Pompidou Center, Paris • San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA • San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA • Whitney Museum, New York • Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia • ARCO Foundation, Madrid, Spain • Centro de Estudos Fotograficos, Vigo, Spain • Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany • Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris • Getty Research Institute, Resource Collections, Los Angeles, CA • Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida • Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA • Museé des Beaux Arts et de la Dentelle, Calais, France • Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Castilla y León, Spain
Awards
• 1977: Art Critic's Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts • 1978: Artist's Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts • 1980: Art Critic's Fellowship., National Endowment for the Arts • 1986: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation • 1999 - 2002: Research Grant, Getty Research Institute / J. Paul Getty Trust • 2007: USA Broad Fellow and granted $50,000 by United States Artists • Fellowship from the Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) • Fellowship from the Atelier Calder
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Allan Sekula received Guggenheim Fellowship. Recorded as photographer, artist, filmmaker, documentarian and art theorist.
Recognition and collections
Work by Allan Sekula is
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Museum of Modern Art and Tate
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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