Experimental Seeing: Russell Lee’s Pedagogical Legacy

September 04, 2026 - December 19, 2026

From the Visual Arts Center:
"Following his 1965 retrospective exhibition at the University of Texas Art Museum (now the Blanton Museum of Art), photographer Russell Lee was tasked with a radical mandate: to build the first photography program in the College of Fine Arts. Eschewing technical language, Lee described his innovative curriculum not as a series of photography classes, but as “experimental courses in seeing.”
This exhibition marks the 60th anniversary of the Department of Art and Art History’s photography program, surveying work by twenty-five exceptional MFA graduates who have benefited from Lee’s pedagogical legacy. While their practices remain rooted in photographic methods and materials, the included artists blur the boundaries of the medium, forming expansive visual languages that encompass print, sculpture, installation, video, and more. Spanning nine US states and four countries, the artists respond to Lee’s proposition by treating photography not as a destination, but a starting point through which to see the world.
Support for Experimental Seeing: Russell Lee’s Pedagogical Legacy is provided by Debbie Dupré, Jeanne and Michael Klein, Kathleen Irvin Loughlin, Colin Doyle and Lora Reynolds, and Gail and Rodney Susholtz."

Reception September 04, 2026 | 5:00 - 8:00 pm

UT Visual Arts Center (VAC)
23rd and Trinity Streets
Austin, TX 78712