Jan Groover, Photographer: Laboratory of Forms

Jan Groover: Laboratory of Forms offers a rediscovery of the life and work of this unduly forgotten American artist. Although she started her career as a painter, Jan Groover (1943–2012) turned primarily to photography in the 1970s, developing a distinct artistic style that amalgamated both disciplines. She was especially known for her carefully composed photographic still-lifes. By the late 1980s, her photographs were sought by galleries only just beginning to embrace photographic art, and she was one of a handful of women to have a solo exhibition of her photographs at the Museum of Modern Art. By the 1990s, the New York Times described her work as “beautiful and masterly in the extreme.”

For the first time, this generously illustrated book traces the full arc of Groover’s career, from her beginnings in America to her late years in western France. Essays on her life and work and her significance as an artist complement the images, alongside a personal contribution by her husband, French artist and critic Bruce Boice.