In his sixty years as a photographer, filmmaker, and founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers string band, John Cohen (1932-2019) was part of and documented many of the major artistic transitions that took place in America during the decades following World War II.
Under the tutelage of Josef Albers and Herbert Matter, Cohen received his Masters from Yale University School of Art in 1957 and moved in next door to Robert Frank in New York City. With camera in hand, he recorded his surroundings which included now historical events and iconic figures such as the filming of the Beats’ “Pull My Daisy”, the Abstract Expressionist painters congregating at the Cedar Bar, and young Bob Dylan’s arrival to the City.
Cohen has been an influential figure in the world of American folk music and was a driving force in its revival and appreciation in the early 1960s. In Cohen’s quest to better understand his musical interests, he conducted both visual and audio research in the mountains of Appalachia. The same held true for Andean textiles; as he traveled frequently to Peru to record the ways of weaving as well as the culture and customs that surround it. In all cases, Cohen pursued “The Source” and documented, not only key moments, pioneering individuals, and vanishing practices on film and recordings but most importantly the environments that cultivated them.
As a photographer, Cohen has had over forty solo exhibitions around the US since 1957 and his work has been central to group exhibitions presented at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Grey Art Gallery at NYU, the Museum of the City of New York, Yale University Art Gallery, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and countless other institutions. As a filmmaker, he was a Fulbright and Guggenheim fellow, in addition to being an NEA grant recipient.
His photographs are in the permanent collections of twenty institutions and his eleventh monograph (with which he was involved) was published posthumously in 2020.
The Library of Congress acquired Cohen’s archive in 2011.
For more details, visit the artist’s website at: johncohenworks.com/
CHRONOLOGY
1932 Born New York City
1955 BFA Yale School of Fine Arts
1957 MFA Yale School of Fine Arts. Studies painting with Josef Albers and photography with Herbert Matter
1958-2010 Founding member of band “New Lost City Ramblers”, Grammy nominee
1950s-2014 Documentary filmmaker for 17 films
1960s Photographs Robert Frank’s first two films (“Pull My Daisy” and “Sin of Jesus”)
1965 Moves to Putnam Valley
1972-1997 Professor of Visual Arts (History of Photography and Drawing), SUNY, Purchase College, NY
1978 Performed at Carnegie Hall
1993 35th Anniversary tour of the New Lost City Ramblers
2003 Associate Music Producer with T Bone Burnett on “Cold Mountain”
2005 Appeared in Martin Scorsese’s PBS documentary about Bob Dylan, “No Direction Home”
2009 Documentary film about John Cohen, “Play On, John: A Life in Music” shown on Smithsonian Network
2011 The Library of Congress Folk Life Center acquires Cohen’s archive
2019 Dies in Putnam Valley
2020 Documentary film about John Cohen by Robert Carr “Different Johns”
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022-23 What Thoughts Look Like: The Fabric of John Cohen’s Life | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY
2019 Dedication | Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne, Germany
2016 The 10th Street Art World, 1957-1963 | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY
Greenwich Village & Washington Square Park - Mother Road Revival Weekend | Woody Guthrie Center, Tulsa, OK
2015 John Cohen Photographer (as part of Big Sky Documentary Film Festival) | Brink Gallery, Missoula, MT
2013 Been Here and Gone | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY
Been Here and Gone | Morrison Hotel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
National Music Centre Exposure: Calgary Banff Canmore Photography Festival | Calgary, Canada
Woody Guthrie & Friends | Woody Guthrie Museum, Tulsa, OK
2012 That High Lonesome Sound | University of Kentucky Hospital, Lexington, KY
Early Works: 1954-1957 | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY
2011 John Cohen | Musée Rimbaud, Charleville-Mezieres, France
John Cohen | Serge Aboukrat (Galerie La Non-Maison), Paris, France
John Cohen | Galerie La Non-Maison, Aix en Provence, France
2010 Past, Present, Peru | Deborah Bell Photographs, New York, NY
2008 Photographs of 1959 production of Pull My Daisy | Deborah Bell Photographs, New York, NY
INSIDE the downtown art community, NYC 1959-1960 | The Borowsky and Open Lens Galleries, Philadelphia, PA
There is No Eye | Joseph Saxton Gallery, Canton, OH
2007 Bob Dylan | Wave Gallery, Brescia, Italy
2006 Young Bob | Ice Box Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
There is No Eye: Photographs by John Cohen | Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA
2005 Now Hear These Pictures | Augusta Carree International Fototage, Mannheim, Germany
There is No Eye | Mizel Center, Denver, CO
2004 There is No Eye | Neuberger Museum, Purchase College SUNY, NY
There is No Eye | Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
There is No Eye | Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
There is No Eye | Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN
2003 Photographs of Young Bob | Deborah Bell Photographs, New York, NY
There is No Eye | Daytona Beach Center for Photography, Daytona Beach, FL
There is No Eye | Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
There is No Eye | Santa Fe College, Photo Gallery, NM
There is No Eye | Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
There is No Eye | Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University, Durham, NC
There is No Eye | Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA
2002 There is No Eye | Photographic Resource Center, Boston University, Boston, MA
John Cohen and Other Musicians | Deborah Bell Photographs, New York, NY
2000 New York and Appalachia | Diogracias Lerma Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
1992 Peru | Nacional Museo de Arte, Lima, Peru
1981 Peru | Side Gallery, Newcastle, England
1980 Peru | The Photographic Gallery, Yr Oriel Ffotograffeg, Wales
1977 Peru | Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase, NY
1970 Kentucky | Rhode Island School of Design Museum, RI
1960 John Cohen | Image Gallery, New York, NY
1959 Peru | American Institute of Graphic Artists, New York, NY
1958 Peru | Yale University Art Museum, New Haven, CT
1957 Peru | Limelight Gallery, New York, NY
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Seen Together: Acquisitions in Photography. The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
2023 Fragments of a faith forgotten: The art of Harry Smith. The Withney, New York
2022 Woody Guthrie- People are the Song | The Morgan Library, New York, NY
2021-22 Polansky Exhibition of the New York Public Library’s Treasures | New York Public Library, NY
Cruel Radiance: Photography, 1940s-1960s | Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
2021 Community Ties | Booth B30, L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, Paris Photo, France
2018 Portraits | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, NY
2017 Deadeye Dick: Richard Bellamy and His Circle | Peter Freeman, Inc., New York, NY
Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1950-1965 (traveling) |
Grey Art Gallery, New York University, NY
Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1950-1965 | NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.
Eye of the Song | Michael S. Currier Center, Putney School, Putney, VT
Viewpoints: Latin America in Photographs | New York Public Library, New York, NY
The Photography Show Presented by AIPAD Pier 94 (LPSP booth), New York, NY
2016 Beat Generation (traveling) Center Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Beat Generation | ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
Identity | Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX
2015 Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts | American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
Art On Paper | L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, Pier 36, New York, NY
Folk City: New York and the American Folk Music Revival | Museum of the City of New York, NY
2014 American Cool | National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
The Image Gallery: Redux 1959-1962 | Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, NY
2013 New Jersey as NonSite | Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton Township, NJ
Roving Signs | Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, NY
The Peruvian Four-Selvaged Cloth: Ancient Threads/New Directions | Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
2012 Happenings New York, 1958-1963 | Pace Gallery Chelsea, New York, NY
2010 Moving Walls 4 | Open Society Institute, New York, NY
2001 Recent Acquisitions: A Decade of Collecting | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
1999 Insiders: Intimate Images | Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1998 This World, Another World | Photo Eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1997 Keeping Time: The Music Photographs of John Cohen & Milt Hinton | Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Extended Play: Between Rock and an Art Space | Photographic Resource Center, Boston University, Boston, MA
A Spiritual Journey, Photography in Latin America | Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
1996 Andean Light | Queens College, New York, NY
1996 Beat Culture and the New America, 1950-1965 | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1994 Beat Generation | Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY
The Sixties | 292 Gallery, New York, NY
1996 Rebels, Poets & Artists of the 1950s | National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
1981 Peru | Stills Gallery, Scotland Center for Photography, Edinburgh, Scotland
1978 Spirit of the New Landscape | Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
1963 Group exhibition | Visual Arts Gallery, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
1959 Image Gallery, New York, NY
1958 Red Grooms, Jim Dine, John Cohen (drawings) | Judson Church, New York, NY
MONOGRAPHS
2020 Cohen, John. Do Not Disturb My Waking Dream. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl
Cohen, John. Look Up to the Moon. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl
2019 Cohen, John. Speed Bumps on a Dirt Road: When Old Time Music Met Bluegrass. Brooklyn: powerHouse.
2016 Cohen, John. Pull My Daisy. Paris, France: Macula
Cohen, John. Cheap Rents… and de Kooning. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl
2015 Cohen, John. Walking In the Light. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl
2014 Cohen, John. Here and Gone: Bob Dylan & Woody Guthrie & the 1960s. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl
2012 Cohen, John. The High & Lonesome Sound: The Legacy of Roscoe Holcomb. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl
2010 Cohen, John. John Cohen: Past, Present, Peru- Photos, Music, Films. Göttingen, Germany: Steidl
2003 Cohen, John. Young Bob: John Cohen’s Early Photographs of Bob Dylan. Brooklyn: powerHouse
2001 Cohen, John. There Is No Eye: John Cohen Photographs. Brooklyn: powerHouse
OTHER NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS
2024 Davidson, Mark & Fishel, Parker. Mixing up the medicine, Callaway Arts and Entertainment, 2023
2017 Rachleff, Melissa. Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952-1965. Prestel
2016 Beat Generation. Paris, France: Centre Pompidou
2015 Wang, Harvey. From Darkroom to Digital. Chapel Hill: Daylight Books
Cohen, Ronald D. and Petrus, Stephen. Folk City: New York and the American Folk Music Revival. Oxford University Press
Klacsmann, John and Lampert, Andrew. String Figures: The Collections of Harry Smith: Catalogue Raisonné, Volume II. J&L Books/Anthology Archives
2013 Baum, Kelly. New Jersey as Non-Site. Princeton University Art Museum
2012 Glimcher, Mildred L. Happenings, New York 1958-1963. The Monacelli Press
2010 Perchuk, Andrew and Singh, Rani. Harry Smith: The Avant-garde in the American Vernacular. Getty Research Institute
1972 Creative Camera, October issue (Peru work)
1971 Aperture, Spring Issue (Peru work)
1968 Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine. Volume 18/Number 4 - October/November Issue (photographs and writings)
1964 Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine. Volume 14/Number 3 - July Issue (photographs and writings)
1961 Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine. Volume 11/Number 1 - February/March 10th Anniversary Issue (photographs and writings)
1960 Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine. Volume 10/Number 2 - Summer Issue (photographs and writings)
1959 Esquire Magazine. 10th Street: Main Street of the Art World (photographs)
FILMOGRAPHY
2014 Visions of Mary Frank
2005 No Direction Home
2003 Cold Mountain
1992 Carnival in Q’eros
1990 Dancing with the Incas
1984 Mountain Music of Peru
1982 Gypsies Sing Long Ballads
1981 Sara and Maybelle
1980 Peruvian Weaving: a Continuous Warp
1979 Q’eros: The Shape of Survival
1975 Musical Holdouts
1972 End of an Old Song
1970 Fifty Miles from Times Square
1962 High Lonesome Sound
FILM SUBJECT
2020 Different Johns. Directed by Robert Carr.
2009 Play on John: A Life in Music. Smithsonian Networks
AWARDS
1997 Grammy Award nominee, New Lost City Ramblers
1986 Grammy Award nominee, New Lost City Ramblers
1983 Guggenheim Fellowship (film)
COLLECTIONS
AmberSide Trust Collection, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, TX
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Josef & Anni Albers Foundation, Bethany, CT
Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Library of Congress, Washington, DC (archive)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Morgan Library and Museum, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
Neuberger Museum, Westchester, NY
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
Rhode Island School of Design, Newport, RI
Sir Elton John Collection
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia, VA
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT