From: B. Izzo (izzos@gusun.georgetown.edu)
Date: 02/09/01-10:22:15 PM Z
Last week during breaks in jury duty at DC Superior Court, I walked the
couple blocks to the National Gallery to see the Stieglitz exhibit "Modern
Art and America: Aflred Stieglitz and his New York Galleries." Contrary
to a previous posting on this list, this is not an exhibit of Stieglitz'
work (although the exhibit contains many of his prints). Stieglitz
was, of course, an early champion of modern art. The works in this
exhibit are a representative sample of the exact works shown in his
galleries from 1908 on. Artists include Matisse, Cezanne, Picasso, Rodin,
Brancusi, Picabia. He later focused on American artists: Marin, Dove,
Hartley, Demuth, O'Keefe, and Strand. There are portraits by Stieglitz of
all six of these as well as his own self-portrait.
There is a good accompanying brochure and a catalogue by Sarah
Greenough. However, as usual, I had a few questions that I wanted to ask
the list.
One of Strand's prints, "Bowls" (1916), had the caption "silver
and platinum print." Are silver and pt mixed in the emulsion or would
this mean silver toned in platinum? It looked more like silver than pt.
(Another of his prints was pt toned with mercury, and had a very pink
cast. Some of the other straight pt prints had a slight pink cast.)
Another combination that I hadn't seen before was pt/pd processed with
gold. This was a Stieglitz portrait of O'Keefe. Is the gold mixed with
the pt/pd?
The catalogue said, that influenced by O'Keefe, Stieglitz experimented
more, and mentioned solarization. One of his prints "Helen Freeman" (just
her hands) l922/23 was labeled "palladium, solarized." How does one
solarize a pd print? This was a little darker than the other pt or pd
prints, but did not look at all like a "solarized" silver print.
It is an interesting show if anyone is coming to Washington before it
closes April 22. Closing March 25 is another exhibit "India through the
Lens: Photography 1840-1911" at the Sackler Gallery. Lots to see and not
enough time.
Suzanne
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 03/06/01-04:55:38 PM Z CST