America's cool modernism

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america’s cool modernism | 11

Contents

America’s Cool Modernism: From O'Keeffe to Hopper Ashmolean Museum, 23 March to 22 July 2018

This exhibition was organised by the Ashmolean Museum and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Copyright © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, 2018

We are most grateful to all the lenders who are supporting our exhibition by allowing us to show works of art which

Katherine M. Bourguignon, Lauren Kroiz and Leo G. Mazow have asserted their moral rights to be identified as the authors of this work.

have rarely or never been seen in the UK before.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art have been especially generous.

British Library Cataloguing in Publications Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

We also thank:

ISBN: 978-1-910807-21-7

The Collection of Theodore C. and Elisabeth B. Rogers

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY

Catalogue designed by Dalrymple Typeset in Electra and MVB Sweet Sans Printed and bound in Wales by Gomer Press For further details of Ashmolean titles please visit: www.ashmolean.org/shop

Please supply captions for cover and introductory images (after subhead, 'in sequence' as page nos will be meaningless?)

I suggest simply artist, title, date and cat no RD

Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Jan T. and Marica Vilcek Collection Victoria and Albert Museum, London Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

17 Preface 19 Director’s Foreword 23 Acknowledgements 25 Cool Modernism in America, 1915–45 Katherine M. Bourguignon 39 Modern, Cool and Cold Leo G. Mazow 57 Leaving the Body: The Empty Spaces of American Modernism Lauren Kroiz

The Phillips Collection, Washington DC Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ Davison Art Center Collection, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT

76 Works in Focus 98 Exhibitions in Focus

Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Utica, NY

109 Catalogue

Rosenfeld Gallery, New York

176 Select Bibliography

Museum of Modern Art, New York Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC National Gallery of Art, Washington DC The exhibition and its publication are made possible with the generous support of Terra Foundation for American Art. Additional support was provided by Mr Barrie and Mrs Deedee Wigmore Huo Family Foundation (UK) Limited Marica and Jan Vilcek The Patrons of the Ashmolean

181 Index

Contents

America’s Cool Modernism: From O'Keeffe to Hopper Ashmolean Museum, 23 March to 22 July 2018

This exhibition was organised by the Ashmolean Museum and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Copyright © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, 2018

We are most grateful to all the lenders who are supporting our exhibition by allowing us to show works of art which

Katherine M. Bourguignon, Lauren Kroiz and Leo G. Mazow have asserted their moral rights to be identified as the authors of this work.

have rarely or never been seen in the UK before.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art have been especially generous.

British Library Cataloguing in Publications Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

We also thank:

ISBN: 978-1-910807-21-7

The Collection of Theodore C. and Elisabeth B. Rogers

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY

Catalogue designed by Dalrymple Typeset in Electra and MVB Sweet Sans Printed and bound in Wales by Gomer Press For further details of Ashmolean titles please visit: www.ashmolean.org/shop

Please supply captions for cover and introductory images (after subhead, 'in sequence' as page nos will be meaningless?)

I suggest simply artist, title, date and cat no RD

Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Jan T. and Marica Vilcek Collection Victoria and Albert Museum, London Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

17 Preface 19 Director’s Foreword 23 Acknowledgements 25 Cool Modernism in America, 1915–45 Katherine M. Bourguignon 39 Modern, Cool and Cold Leo G. Mazow 57 Leaving the Body: The Empty Spaces of American Modernism Lauren Kroiz

The Phillips Collection, Washington DC Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ Davison Art Center Collection, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT

76 Works in Focus 98 Exhibitions in Focus

Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art, Utica, NY

109 Catalogue

Rosenfeld Gallery, New York

176 Select Bibliography

Museum of Modern Art, New York Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC National Gallery of Art, Washington DC The exhibition and its publication are made possible with the generous support of Terra Foundation for American Art. Additional support was provided by Mr Barrie and Mrs Deedee Wigmore Huo Family Foundation (UK) Limited Marica and Jan Vilcek The Patrons of the Ashmolean

181 Index

work in focus: Ralston Crawford (1906–78)

Buffalo Grain Elevators, 1937 Oil on canvas·102 x 127.6 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC. Museum purchase, 1976.133 (1976.133) Cat.15

Painted in 1937, Buffalo Grain Elevators belongs to a larger ensemble of photographs, drawings and paintings that Ralston Crawford devoted to this motif. The term describes both the impressive agricultural structures dedicated to grain storage and the mechanical process for moving it. Born in Ontario, Canada, Crawford grew up in Buffalo, New York on the coast of Lake Erie, where as many as 280 million bushels of grain were transported each year. As early as the mid-nineteenth century Buffalo had become a key grain transportation hub for the Great Lakes region. Here the agricultural development required the establishment of a largescale, mechanized and industrialized network for routing and storing. Essential to this system, grain elevators quickly became topographic elements in the American agricultural landscape.1 During a period in which Americans strove to establish a unique cultural identity, independent from Europe, grain elevators were seen as emblems of a specifically national modernity – particularly those in Buffalo, where in 1842 John Dart established the first mechanical system for transporting grain to silos.2 Buffalo Grain Elevators celebrates both the modernity of these agricultural buildings and their native, home-grown character.

The grain elevator is immediately recognizable in the painting, but Crawford has depicted it in a decidedly modern way. Silos, metallic structures and electrical wires are reduced to an arrangement of coloured geometric forms frozen in a crisp, transparent air. The composition highlights the formal purity of the structures’ clean lines and emphasizes the functionality of streamlined American industrial architecture. Crawford’s canvas thus establishes a link between modernity and American identity.

Stripped of anecdotal detail, the industrial landscape is grand, almost sacred. The monumentality of the three grain silos is emphasized by the composition as well as the intense light that creates strong effects of chiaroscuro. Dark, cropped, tinplate roofs seemingly crushed towards the ground 92

contrast with white silos that reach towards the immaculate blue sky. The importance given to light and colour may relate to the principals of Gothic art and architecture developed by Abbot Suger in the twelfth century. The reduced palette of colours (blue, yellow, red, white, black) recall the dominant colours of a Gothic stained-glass window.

The mechanical conduits, flanked on either side of the silos, recall flying buttresses. Crawford himself considered these grain elevators to be the American equivalent of the Gothic cathedrals of Europe.3 The grain elevators appear as an industrial temple, with the silos connecting the roofs in the foreground (a link to all things human) to the vastness of the sky (a sign of the infinite). In this sense, Buffalo Grain Elevators illustrates an interwar intellectual current in the United States that associated the mechanical with the divine.4 Filled with grain, appearing as a modern Trinity providing Americans with their ‘daily bread’, the three silos represent an industrial transcendence based on the machine.

Solitude and stillness dominate the composition. Silent and far removed from the world and the movement of the workers, whose presence has been systematically erased, the monumental building looks suspended in time, as if withdrawn from life itself. Similarly, the painter’s touch is also erased.

Flat, precise, almost mechanical, the painting – understood as an object – is marked by absence, by the desertion of the artist’s hand. In the same pictorial space, in the same light, exists the power and glory of a modern America, and the danger that modern technology may eradicate humankind.

Julie Boulage

work in focus: Ralston Crawford (1906–78)

Buffalo Grain Elevators, 1937 Oil on canvas·102 x 127.6 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC. Museum purchase, 1976.133 (1976.133) Cat.15

Painted in 1937, Buffalo Grain Elevators belongs to a larger ensemble of photographs, drawings and paintings that Ralston Crawford devoted to this motif. The term describes both the impressive agricultural structures dedicated to grain storage and the mechanical process for moving it. Born in Ontario, Canada, Crawford grew up in Buffalo, New York on the coast of Lake Erie, where as many as 280 million bushels of grain were transported each year. As early as the mid-nineteenth century Buffalo had become a key grain transportation hub for the Great Lakes region. Here the agricultural development required the establishment of a largescale, mechanized and industrialized network for routing and storing. Essential to this system, grain elevators quickly became topographic elements in the American agricultural landscape.1 During a period in which Americans strove to establish a unique cultural identity, independent from Europe, grain elevators were seen as emblems of a specifically national modernity – particularly those in Buffalo, where in 1842 John Dart established the first mechanical system for transporting grain to silos.2 Buffalo Grain Elevators celebrates both the modernity of these agricultural buildings and their native, home-grown character.

The grain elevator is immediately recognizable in the painting, but Crawford has depicted it in a decidedly modern way. Silos, metallic structures and electrical wires are reduced to an arrangement of coloured geometric forms frozen in a crisp, transparent air. The composition highlights the formal purity of the structures’ clean lines and emphasizes the functionality of streamlined American industrial architecture. Crawford’s canvas thus establishes a link between modernity and American identity.

Stripped of anecdotal detail, the industrial landscape is grand, almost sacred. The monumentality of the three grain silos is emphasized by the composition as well as the intense light that creates strong effects of chiaroscuro. Dark, cropped, tinplate roofs seemingly crushed towards the ground 92

contrast with white silos that reach towards the immaculate blue sky. The importance given to light and colour may relate to the principals of Gothic art and architecture developed by Abbot Suger in the twelfth century. The reduced palette of colours (blue, yellow, red, white, black) recall the dominant colours of a Gothic stained-glass window.

The mechanical conduits, flanked on either side of the silos, recall flying buttresses. Crawford himself considered these grain elevators to be the American equivalent of the Gothic cathedrals of Europe.3 The grain elevators appear as an industrial temple, with the silos connecting the roofs in the foreground (a link to all things human) to the vastness of the sky (a sign of the infinite). In this sense, Buffalo Grain Elevators illustrates an interwar intellectual current in the United States that associated the mechanical with the divine.4 Filled with grain, appearing as a modern Trinity providing Americans with their ‘daily bread’, the three silos represent an industrial transcendence based on the machine.

Solitude and stillness dominate the composition. Silent and far removed from the world and the movement of the workers, whose presence has been systematically erased, the monumental building looks suspended in time, as if withdrawn from life itself. Similarly, the painter’s touch is also erased.

Flat, precise, almost mechanical, the painting – understood as an object – is marked by absence, by the desertion of the artist’s hand. In the same pictorial space, in the same light, exists the power and glory of a modern America, and the danger that modern technology may eradicate humankind.

Julie Boulage

George Josimovich 1894–1986

Paul Kelpe 1902–85

Paul Kelpe was born in Germany and grew up in Hanover, where he became acquainted with the work of avant-garde abstract and constructivist artists. He settled in New Jersey and New York in 1925 and moved to Chicago in 1931. After working for the Federal Art Project Mural Division in Chicago, where he had to adapt his abstract style to the programme’s taste for figurative art, he joined the Abstract Division of the WPA Mural Project in New York in 1936. During the three years he spent in the programme, Kelpe became part of a vital community of young abstract artists who formed the ‘American Abstract Artists’ in 1937. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s he developed a unique imagery based on order and solid geometrical structures arranged in a three-dimensional space.

43 Machinery (Abstract #2), 1933–4 Oil on canvas, 97 x 67 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase. Transfer from the US Department of Labor (1964.1.27) © The Artist’s Estate

George Josimovich was born in the AustroHungarian empire and immigrated to the United States in 1908. He settled in Wyoming with his family, but soon moved to the Midwest. Here he attended art school, first in Kalamazoo, Michigan and by 1914 at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied with George Bellows whose ties to avant-garde art deeply influenced him. After graduation he established a studio in Chicago in 1922.

Josimovich’s works simplified familiar scenes and landscapes into abstract, flattened arrangements of shapes and colours, and were first exhibited in

1923 at the Chicago No-Jury Society Exhibition.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s he exhibited in several group shows at the Art Institute in Chicago, the Illinois State Museum and the Chicago Society of Artists. In addition to painting, Josimovich also worked as a draftsman and a designer of ornamental lighting fixtures.

42 Illinois Central, 1927 Oil on canvas, 104.1 x 118.1 cm Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund (2004.1) © The Artist’s Estate

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George Josimovich 1894–1986

Paul Kelpe 1902–85

Paul Kelpe was born in Germany and grew up in Hanover, where he became acquainted with the work of avant-garde abstract and constructivist artists. He settled in New Jersey and New York in 1925 and moved to Chicago in 1931. After working for the Federal Art Project Mural Division in Chicago, where he had to adapt his abstract style to the programme’s taste for figurative art, he joined the Abstract Division of the WPA Mural Project in New York in 1936. During the three years he spent in the programme, Kelpe became part of a vital community of young abstract artists who formed the ‘American Abstract Artists’ in 1937. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s he developed a unique imagery based on order and solid geometrical structures arranged in a three-dimensional space.

43 Machinery (Abstract #2), 1933–4 Oil on canvas, 97 x 67 cm Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase. Transfer from the US Department of Labor (1964.1.27) © The Artist’s Estate

George Josimovich was born in the AustroHungarian empire and immigrated to the United States in 1908. He settled in Wyoming with his family, but soon moved to the Midwest. Here he attended art school, first in Kalamazoo, Michigan and by 1914 at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied with George Bellows whose ties to avant-garde art deeply influenced him. After graduation he established a studio in Chicago in 1922.

Josimovich’s works simplified familiar scenes and landscapes into abstract, flattened arrangements of shapes and colours, and were first exhibited in

1923 at the Chicago No-Jury Society Exhibition.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s he exhibited in several group shows at the Art Institute in Chicago, the Illinois State Museum and the Chicago Society of Artists. In addition to painting, Josimovich also worked as a draftsman and a designer of ornamental lighting fixtures.

42 Illinois Central, 1927 Oil on canvas, 104.1 x 118.1 cm Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund (2004.1) © The Artist’s Estate

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William McNulty 1889–1963

Georgia O’Keeffe 1887–1986

William McNulty was born in the Utah Territory and studied at the Art Students League in New York between 1907 and 1909. He started his career as an artist-reporter, producing graphic work for newspapers across the United States. He came back to New York in 1920 and took up printmaking under the aegis of master etcher Joseph Pennell.

McNulty was most active during the 1930s, specializing in views of New York and in depictions of circus performers. He also experimented with painting and drawing in the 1930s and 1940s, and taught at the Art Students League until 1958.

Georgia O’Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and attended the Art Students League and Teachers College at Columbia in New York. Under the influence of Arthur Wesley Dow, who emphasized composition and design over mimesis, she developed a unique brand of modernism based on the simplification and isolation of forms and on the use of bold colours. Her work was first exhibited in 1916 at ‘291’, the gallery of avant-garde photographer Alfred Stieglitz, whom she married in 1924. In the 1930s she divided her time between New York and Taos, New Mexico before establishing herself permanently in New Mexico in 1946.

52 New York in the Fifties, 1931 Drypoint on off-white paper, 44.6 x 30.2 cm Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection (1996.39) © The Artist’s Estate

53 Abstraction, 1919 Oil on canvas, 25.7 x 17.9 cm Gift of Henry H. Ploch, 2000, Collection of the Newark Museum (2000.19.2) © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / DACS 2018

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William McNulty 1889–1963

Georgia O’Keeffe 1887–1986

William McNulty was born in the Utah Territory and studied at the Art Students League in New York between 1907 and 1909. He started his career as an artist-reporter, producing graphic work for newspapers across the United States. He came back to New York in 1920 and took up printmaking under the aegis of master etcher Joseph Pennell.

McNulty was most active during the 1930s, specializing in views of New York and in depictions of circus performers. He also experimented with painting and drawing in the 1930s and 1940s, and taught at the Art Students League until 1958.

Georgia O’Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and attended the Art Students League and Teachers College at Columbia in New York. Under the influence of Arthur Wesley Dow, who emphasized composition and design over mimesis, she developed a unique brand of modernism based on the simplification and isolation of forms and on the use of bold colours. Her work was first exhibited in 1916 at ‘291’, the gallery of avant-garde photographer Alfred Stieglitz, whom she married in 1924. In the 1930s she divided her time between New York and Taos, New Mexico before establishing herself permanently in New Mexico in 1946.

52 New York in the Fifties, 1931 Drypoint on off-white paper, 44.6 x 30.2 cm Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection (1996.39) © The Artist’s Estate

53 Abstraction, 1919 Oil on canvas, 25.7 x 17.9 cm Gift of Henry H. Ploch, 2000, Collection of the Newark Museum (2000.19.2) © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum / DACS 2018

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Charles Sheeler

62 Silo, cover illustration, Fortune, April 1939, Vol. XIX, no. 4.

Page size 35.5 x 29 cm Terra Foundation for American Art, Paris Library © Estate of Charles Sheeler

63 “Power: A Portfolio by Charles Sheeler” in Fortune, December 1940, Vol. XXII, no. 6.

Illustrated below, left to right: Steam Turbine (1939), Conversation: Sky and Earth (1940) and Suspended Power (1939).

Page size: 35.5 x 29 cm Terra Foundation for American Art, Paris Library © Estate of Charles Sheeler

64 Industrial Series #1, 1928 Lithograph, 29.2 x 40.6 cm From the Collection of Theodore C. and Elisabeth B. Rogers © 2018. Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover / Art Resource, NY / Scala, Florence

65 Coke Ovens – River Rouge, 1927 Gelatin silver print (printed in 1950s), 22.1 x 19.1 cm From the Collection of Theodore C. and Elisabeth B. Rogers © Estate of Charles Sheeler

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Charles Sheeler

62 Silo, cover illustration, Fortune, April 1939, Vol. XIX, no. 4.

Page size 35.5 x 29 cm Terra Foundation for American Art, Paris Library © Estate of Charles Sheeler

63 “Power: A Portfolio by Charles Sheeler” in Fortune, December 1940, Vol. XXII, no. 6.

Illustrated below, left to right: Steam Turbine (1939), Conversation: Sky and Earth (1940) and Suspended Power (1939).

Page size: 35.5 x 29 cm Terra Foundation for American Art, Paris Library © Estate of Charles Sheeler

64 Industrial Series #1, 1928 Lithograph, 29.2 x 40.6 cm From the Collection of Theodore C. and Elisabeth B. Rogers © 2018. Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover / Art Resource, NY / Scala, Florence

65 Coke Ovens – River Rouge, 1927 Gelatin silver print (printed in 1950s), 22.1 x 19.1 cm From the Collection of Theodore C. and Elisabeth B. Rogers © Estate of Charles Sheeler

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Alfred Stieglitz 1864–1946

Paul Strand 1890–1976

Alfred Stieglitz was born in New York and spent his early adulthood in Germany where he experimented with photography. He founded the PhotoSecession group in 1902, gaining international recognition as one of the pioneers of modern photography. A true champion of modern art, Stieglitz promoted and supported the art of many American avant-garde artists, including Oscar Bluemner, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe and Edward Steichen, exhibiting their work at his ‘291’ gallery in New York. The three galleries he opened in succession became central meeting places for the New York avant-garde. His activities as an artist, an art dealer, a critic and an art theorist make Stieglitz one of the most influential figures of American modern art during the first decades of the twentieth century.

Paul Strand was born in New York and studied photography with Lewis Hine. He became a member of the Camera Club of New York and produced soft-focus pictures before turning to a sharper, more precise style. One of the founders of the movement that came to be known as ‘straight photography’, he created photographic abstractions through close-up views of ordinary objects captured in a new, direct or ‘straight’ manner. Alfred Stieglitz gave Strand his first solo show in 1916 at the avantgarde gallery ‘291’. In 1921 Strand made the short, avant-garde movie Manhatta with fellow modern artist Charles Sheeler. During the 1930s he turned to film-making, producing socially and politically aware films. He took up photography again in 1943 and continued to work in the medium throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

77 From my window at the Shelton, West, 1931 Gelatin silver print, 23.7 x 19 cm George Eastman Museum. Purchase and gift of Georgia O’Keeffe (1974.0052.0073)

Inadequate Image Awaiting replacement

78 From the El, 1915 Gelatin silver print on Cykora paper, printed c.1925, 33 x 26 cm From the Collection of Theodore C. and Elisabeth B. Rogers © Aperture Foundation, Inc., Paul Strand Archive

79 Abstraction, Bowls, Twin Lakes, Connecticut, 1916 Photogravure, printed 1917, 22.8 x 16.6 cm George Eastman Museum (1969.0119.0003) © Aperture Foundation, Inc., Paul Strand Archive

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Alfred Stieglitz 1864–1946

Paul Strand 1890–1976

Alfred Stieglitz was born in New York and spent his early adulthood in Germany where he experimented with photography. He founded the PhotoSecession group in 1902, gaining international recognition as one of the pioneers of modern photography. A true champion of modern art, Stieglitz promoted and supported the art of many American avant-garde artists, including Oscar Bluemner, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe and Edward Steichen, exhibiting their work at his ‘291’ gallery in New York. The three galleries he opened in succession became central meeting places for the New York avant-garde. His activities as an artist, an art dealer, a critic and an art theorist make Stieglitz one of the most influential figures of American modern art during the first decades of the twentieth century.

Paul Strand was born in New York and studied photography with Lewis Hine. He became a member of the Camera Club of New York and produced soft-focus pictures before turning to a sharper, more precise style. One of the founders of the movement that came to be known as ‘straight photography’, he created photographic abstractions through close-up views of ordinary objects captured in a new, direct or ‘straight’ manner. Alfred Stieglitz gave Strand his first solo show in 1916 at the avantgarde gallery ‘291’. In 1921 Strand made the short, avant-garde movie Manhatta with fellow modern artist Charles Sheeler. During the 1930s he turned to film-making, producing socially and politically aware films. He took up photography again in 1943 and continued to work in the medium throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

77 From my window at the Shelton, West, 1931 Gelatin silver print, 23.7 x 19 cm George Eastman Museum. Purchase and gift of Georgia O’Keeffe (1974.0052.0073)

Inadequate Image Awaiting replacement

78 From the El, 1915 Gelatin silver print on Cykora paper, printed c.1925, 33 x 26 cm From the Collection of Theodore C. and Elisabeth B. Rogers © Aperture Foundation, Inc., Paul Strand Archive

79 Abstraction, Bowls, Twin Lakes, Connecticut, 1916 Photogravure, printed 1917, 22.8 x 16.6 cm George Eastman Museum (1969.0119.0003) © Aperture Foundation, Inc., Paul Strand Archive

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Edward Weston 1886–1958

Edward Weston began as an amateur photographer before studying commercial photography at the Illinois College of Photography in his home state. He moved to California around 1909 and worked at a commercial portrait studio.

His early works received attention at international photographic salons. Following his travels in Ohio and meeting with Alfred Stieglitz in New York in 1922, Weston embraced a new modern style that emphasized crisp lines and industrial subjects, becoming a strong advocate of ‘straight photography’. He utilized this sharp, close-up focus in a series of simple, straightforward photographs of still-life objects and vegetables. In the 1930s and 1940s Weston worked in California, turning his camera toward the coastal landscape at Point Lobos.

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87 Steel: Armco, Middletown, Ohio, 1922 Palladium print, 23.2 x 17.5 cm From the Collection of Theodore C. and Elisabeth B. Rogers photograph by Joshua Nefsky © Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona Foundation / DACS 2018

88 Shell and Rock Arrangement, 1931 Gelatin silver print, 19 x 23.8 cm George Eastman Museum.

Purchase (1966.0070.0021) © Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona Foundation / DACS 2017

173

Edward Weston 1886–1958

Edward Weston began as an amateur photographer before studying commercial photography at the Illinois College of Photography in his home state. He moved to California around 1909 and worked at a commercial portrait studio.

His early works received attention at international photographic salons. Following his travels in Ohio and meeting with Alfred Stieglitz in New York in 1922, Weston embraced a new modern style that emphasized crisp lines and industrial subjects, becoming a strong advocate of ‘straight photography’. He utilized this sharp, close-up focus in a series of simple, straightforward photographs of still-life objects and vegetables. In the 1930s and 1940s Weston worked in California, turning his camera toward the coastal landscape at Point Lobos.

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87 Steel: Armco, Middletown, Ohio, 1922 Palladium print, 23.2 x 17.5 cm From the Collection of Theodore C. and Elisabeth B. Rogers photograph by Joshua Nefsky © Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona Foundation / DACS 2018

88 Shell and Rock Arrangement, 1931 Gelatin silver print, 19 x 23.8 cm George Eastman Museum.

Purchase (1966.0070.0021) © Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona Foundation / DACS 2017

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