Frederick Sommer: Photographs, drawings and musical scores

California State University, Long Beach, organised a major retrospective spanning 40 years of Frederick Sommer’s work.

Sommer (1905-99) was an American citizen who was born in Italy and raised in Brazil. Best known for his photography, he was also fascinated by musical notation and a variety of media and techniques, from found objects, to soot, to cut paper.

This exhibition toured the United States for nearly two years, and the Arts Council brought the exhibition to the Serpentine Gallery for its only British showing.

The exhibition contained 53 photographs, ranging from images of the Arizona landscape, to collages, constructions, and cut-paper works, as well as 16 drawings and six designs for musical scores.