Photos capture Italy ‘in the shadow of time’

A stunning exhibition of 45 black-and-white photographs of Italy by Linda Butler will grace Mayer Gallery of the Elvehjem Museum of Art from Dec. 16 through Feb. 11.

Between 1992 and 1996, the American photographer explored Italy from north to south. She teetered on a rooftop garden over a narrow medieval street in Genova and visited the last extant gondola factory in Venice. She discovered a foundry in a cave carved out of tufa stone in Naples and the ruins of an 18th-century theater in Pisa. She followed in the footsteps of farmers in Puglia and Sicily. In private homes, Butler photographed objects loved by generations of Italian families.

The intimacy of these images allows objects to speak with a mysterious eloquence. In Italy, in the dark corners of churches, in the libraries of universities, in the living rooms of private homes, the dead still carry on conversations with the living through art, architecture and writings. The past is inextricably imposed on the present. The photographs preserve Italian culture and architecture through an interplay of light and shadow.

Butler, born in Appleton in 1947, attended Antioch College as an undergraduate and the University of Michigan for her master’s degree. Living in Sacramento, Cal., in the late 1970s, Butler took a workshop from Ansel Adams and began a portfolio on the California desert.

After moving to Kentucky in 1981, she began to photograph Shaker villages and transformed her work from landscapes into still lifes, interiors and architecture Her black-and-white photographs illustrate her love of texture, graceful lines and light.

Butler photographs are collected by major museums in the United States. She regularly exhibits in the United States, Italy, Canada and Japan. Her book, “Italy: In the Shadow of Time” will be on sale in the Museum Shop (hardcover $50, members $42.40).

The Elvehjem Museum of Art is open Tuesdays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. The Museum and Holiday shops are also open Mondays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., through Dec. 18.