Bellagio to show Adams photos

The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art at Las Vegas’ Bellagio resort and casino has announced plans to present a yearlong exhibition of nearly 50 works by American photographer Ansel Adams, to be on display May 3 through May 6, 2007.

Works in the exhibition, from the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, will include “Monolith, Face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California” (1927), “Rose and Driftwood, San Francisco” (ca. 1933) and a 1941 image of Boulder Dam.

Douglas Nickel, director of the Tucson center, confirmed Thursday that the nonprofit center will be paid for providing the works to the Bellagio Gallery, which is managed by PaperBall, a division of PaceWildenstein Gallery in New York. Nickel declined to provide a monetary figure.

In 2004, the for-profit Bellagio gallery presented an exhibition of Monet masterworks from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. That exhibition stirred controversy in the art world because the nonprofit Boston museum stood to profit by a reported minimum of $1 million -- leading to speculation that the museum had placed financial interest over educational benefit in making the decision to send the artworks to Las Vegas.

Nickel said that such criticism does not apply to his center’s arrangement with the Bellagio gallery, saying that Adams, who co-founded the photography center, held a “democratic perspective” when it came to showing his work. “Las Vegas has the potential for an amount, and kind, of audience moving through that we don’t enjoy in Tucson,” Nickel said. “It conforms to our mission.”

-- Diane Haithman