A true genius and beloved educator at Cranbrook. Carl was one of the first to work with Xerox Machines. He believed the copy machine to be yet another type of instant camera. He created an entirely new vocabulary in the tradition of the photographic collage that has yet to be equaled. Everyone who studied under Carl walked away changed for the better. (His legendary lectures could go for six hours!) Carl has influenced an entire generation of great artists and photographers.
“A major goal of my work has been to incorporate aspects of photographic process or or phenomena as a central part of its meaning/structure. These self-reflexive elements provide a counterpoint to the connections of unmediated transcription of reality that we associate with photographic depiction”.
Artist statement by Carl via Carl Toth Monograph published by Cranbrook.
UPDATE: After years of effort a retrospective at Cranbrook has finally arrived. https://cranbrookartmuseum.org/exhibition/carl-toth-reordering-fictions/
There is still a monograph available with a forward by Donald Kuspit titled: “The Epistemophilic Instinct in Carl Toth’s Photographs.”
Carl Toth’s artis included in collections at museums and centers including the Museum of Modern Art, The International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, The Center for Creative Photography and The Art Institute of Chicago. Toth is the recipient of three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Carl Toth passed away on August 20th, 2022
He will be sadly missed by hundreds of his students…
The Xerographic Collages of Carl Toth
