DOCSLIB.ORG

Alfred Stieglitz, Camera Work, and the Organizational Roots of The

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

CanadianReview of AmericanStudies/Revue canadienne d'?ttdes am•ricaines Volume28, Number2, 1998, pp. 37-79 37 "The Safenessof StandingAlone": Alfred Stieglitz,Camera Work, and the OrganizationalRoots of theAmerican Avant-Garde J.M. Mancini The SecessionistIdea is neither the servant nor the product of a medium. It is a spirit.Let us sayit is the Spiritof the Lamp;the old and discolored,the too frequentlydespised, the too often discarded lamp of honesty;honesty of aim,honesty of self-expression,honesty of revolt againstthe autocracyof convention.The Photo-Secessionis not the keeperof thisLamp, but lights it whenit may[.] ("TheEditors' Page," Camera Work 18 (April1907), 37) The Secessionistscare little for popularapproval, insisting upon works, notfaith, and believing that their share having been done in producing thework, the public must now do the rest. A fewfriends, and these of understandingmind, a fewtrue appreciators, this is all theyexpect and all theydesire. (Hartmann 1904, 47) Canadian Reviexv of American Sin&es 38 Revue canadienne d'•t•Mes ambricaines Stieglitz,"Seer" and Organizer By manyaccounts, modern art arrivedon Americanshores sometime after 1905,due in largepart to theefforts of photographerAlfred Stieglitz. If the 1913Armory Show (and its peevishpublic reception) marked modernism's officialAmerican coming-out party, Stieglitz's intimate exhibits of worksby Rodin, Matisse,and Picassobetween 1905 and 1912 servedas the new art's formalletter of introductionto a smallerand morepowerful viewersh•p (Dijkstra1969, Homer 1977, Zilczer 1985). Not merelyan importerbut an artistin his own right,Stieglitz has also been widely creditedwith trans- formingphotography into one of theprimary venues for modernistexperi- mentationin theUnited States (Orvell 1989;Haines 1982), • a transformation whichparallelled Frank Lloyd Wright's drive in architecturetowards a ver- nacularAmerican modernism (Crunden 1982, 133-62). Althoughscholars disagreeon thedegree to whichStieglitz himself initiated American photo- graphy'sturn away from the academic,pictorialist style of the turn of the centurytowards the hard-edged,geometric productions of the following decades(Arrowsmith and West 1992; Bunnell 1993, 1-38; Homer 1983; Peterson1993; Pettuck 1981; Watson 1991), few havedenied Stieglitz and the photographicschool he engendereda central place in the pantheonof American visual modernism) Yet, Stieglitz'stalent as an artistand connoisseur of thenew only partially explainshis success within the art world,both occluding his relationship to his predecessorsand prohibiting a morenuanced understanding of photo- graphicmodernism's emergence and rise to preeminencein the United States)Stieglitz's proficiency asan art-world organizer, as much as the fresh- nessof his vision,transformed the face of photographicproduction in America,and provided a modelfor artistsworking in othermedia, as well. 4 As both a preserverof the heavilyorganizational approach to artistic productionchampioned by his Gilded Age predecessors, and an innovator on thoseforms, Stieglitz gave new shape to Americanunderstandings of artistic creation.s Like the Gilded Age institution builders who had sought to pro- mote the developmentof art in Americathrough the establishmentof museums,schools, and criticism, Stieglitz made a placefor photography amongthe fine arts both by developinginstitutions devoted to its advance- ].M. blancini/ 39 mentand through constant negotiation for itsacceptance among the already establishedstructures of the art world (Keller1984). 6 Stieglitzreimagined the nature and function of criticism in significant ways. If he utilized time-testedinstitutional means to build a placefor artistic photographyin a literalsense, he used criticism toachieve a more specific butmore metaphorical construction, building his circle into an avant-garde, presumablyindependent ofart-world ties, and constructing theirworks as the inevitable,natural next step in thedevelopment of artistic photography. By billingthe promotion of a particularset of producersand productions asa crusadefor the promotion of artisticphotography per se, Stieglitz closed off alternativedefinitions of artisticphotography and represented his associates asthe only and self-evident future of art (Trachtenberg1989, ch. 4). 7 Throughthis refashioning of criticism, and through the construction of a verticallyintegrated organizational structure that mirrored contemporary movestowards consolidation in businessand industry,Stieglitz secured a lastingplace in theAmerican cultural imagination not only for modernist photography,8but for the avant-garde 9itself. VerticalIntegration Stieglitz'sart-world empire consisted of three central organizations: the Photo-Secession,founded in 1902,Camera Work, a journalwhich ran from 1903to 1917,and the "Little Galleries" at 291Fifth Avenue in New York, whichbegan operation in 1905(Naef 1978, 116-53). Self-consciously modelledafter the various European splinter groups from which it tookits name,the Photo-Secession joined photographers andsympathizers in an associationdevoted to theacceptance of photography asa validartistic medium.Not only a convenientgate-keeping device, whereby membership readilydistinguished insiders from outsiders, theassociation alsohelped to shapethe boundariesof a unitedfront for entryinto competitions, exhibitions,and the like, undergirding aesthetic sympathy with the bond of formalassociation. Membership within the Photo-Secession, likemembership withinthe Society of AmericanArtists, the Ten, and the range of other formaland informal associations that artistsformed throughout the nine- teenthcentury, provided artists not only with sheltered opportunities for Canadian Review of American Studies 40 Revue canadsenned'ktudes ambr•cames exhibitionwithin the fold, but offered solidarity and common cause to those with grievancesagainst the hangingcommittees that determinedthe com- positionof mostlarge, public exhibitions. As the publicface of the Photo-Secession,the Little Galleries("291") servedas the starting point from which Stieglitz could develop and control a contextof displayamenable to Secessionistneeds, providing a seemingly "independent"space in whichmembers' works could be displayedwithout outside"interference." As a site for the presentationof works by artistsin nonphotographicfields, it servedas a forgein whichto fashionSecessionist links with the largerart community,which, given the group's desire to legitimatephotography as an art, was paramount.Exhibitions of this sort publiclydemonstrated the kinshipbetween artistic photography and more traditionalmedia, and providedan artisticcontext in which viewerscould locateSecessionist works. •ø Best of all, aninclusive exhibition policy served to integratethe Photo-Secessionwithin the art world by forging l•nks betweenSecessionists and artistsin otherfields, while simultaneouslyat- testingto its much-vauntedindependence from art-worldpolitics and art- world conventions,which dictatedthat photographyand the other arts shouldoccupy separate and distinct spheres. TMThus while the gallery served someof the samepurposes of manynineteenth-century photographic gal- leries-mostobviously, the public displayof its founder'sphotographic creations--291differed significantly from venuessuch as Mathew Brady's "galleryof greathistorical figures" and Napoleon Sarony's gallery of actors andother notables in two respects (Orvell 1989, 8-9; 79-81). 29 l's emphas•s on photography'sformal and aesthetic qualities, rather than on its subject matter,demonstrated a turn away from previous uses of themedium as a his- torical,pedagogical or documentarytool. Moreover, Stieglitz's decision to buildties within the art worldby demonstratingthe linksbetween photo- graphyand other media, rather than to reachout to a broaderpublic through appealsto itstaste for thefamous and heroic, also marked a significantde- parturefrom previous practice. The journalCamera Work served as the linchpinof Stieglitz'senterprise. Althoughthey insisted on its independence, Stieglitz and fellow editor Joseph T. Keileyconsistently used the journal not onlyto promotethe acceptance of photographyasan art, but to keepreaders abreast of Secessionsuccesses J.M. Mancini / 41 andto publicizeexhibitions at theLittle Galleries. •2Not merelyan adver- tisingsupplement, Canera Work lay at theheart of a moresubtle enterprise: Stieglitz'sconstruction of the Photo-Secession asan artistic splinter group, successfulfor thegenius of itsworks, rather than its dependence on art-world politics.For the many readers who could not experience their exhibitions first-hand,Cantera Work was the Photo-Secession.•3If the Little Galleries providedan amenablecontext of displayfor modernistworks, Stieglitz's abilityto puta positivespin on all thattook place therein ensured that that contextextended far beyond the literal space bounded by the gallery walls. 34 Leavingnothing to chance,Stieglitz supervised artistic production from beginningto end,integrating creation, display, and criticism under one dominion. CanteraWork supported the third element in Stieglitz'sempire, the Photo- Secession.Within the first year of publication,the iournal's editors devoted a smallsupplement to answering the "many... enquiriesasto thenature andaims of the Photo-Secessionand requirements of eligibility to member- ship"("The Photo-Secession," Camera Work 3 [July1903], supplement). In thisperiodically updated and reprinted supplement, theeditors presented the Secessionto the publicas a unifiedmovement, dedicated
Recommended publications
  • The Street—Design for a Poster

    The Street—Design for a Poster

    National Gallery of Art NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART ONLINE EDITIONS Alfred Stieglitz Key Set Alfred Stieglitz (editor/publisher) after Various Artists Alfred Stieglitz American, 1864 - 1946 The Street—Design for a Poster 1900/1901, printed 1903 photogravure image: 17.6 × 13.2 cm (6 15/16 × 5 3/16 in.) Alfred Stieglitz Collection 1949.3.1270.34 Key Set Number 266 Image courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art KEY SET ENTRY Related Key Set Photographs The Street—Design for a Poster 1 © National Gallery of Art, Washington National Gallery of Art NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART ONLINE EDITIONS Alfred Stieglitz Key Set Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz The Street, Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue—30th Street 1900/1901, printed 1903/1904 1900/1901, printed 1929/1937 photogravure gelatin silver print Key Set Number 267 Key Set Number 268 same negative same negative Remarks The date is based on stylistic similarities to Spring Showers—The Street Cleaner (Key Set number 269) and Spring Showers—The Coach (Camera Notes 5:3 [January 1902], pl. A). This photograph was made at Fifth Avenue and 30th Street with a Bausch & Lomb Extra Rapid Universal lens, and won a grand prize of $300 in the 1903 “Bausch & Lomb Quarter-Century Competition”(see Camera Work 5 [January 1904], 53; and The American Amateur Photographer 16 [February 1904], 92). Lifetime Exhibitions A print from the same negative—perhaps a photograph from the Gallery’s collection—appeared in the following exhibition(s) during Alfred Stieglitz’s lifetime: 1903, Hamburg (no. 424, as The Street, photogravure) 1903, San Francisco (no. 34a, as The Street—Winter) 1904, Washington (no.
  • Lalique-Haviland-Burty Famille Des Arts, Famille D'artistes

    Lalique-Haviland-Burty Famille Des Arts, Famille D'artistes

    276 Nicole M ARITCH -HAVILAND , Catherine de L ÉOBARDY Lalique-Haviland-Burty Famille des arts, famille d’artistes 1 ALIQUE -H AVILAND -B URTY est un fascinant livre de photos , un conte pour grandes personnes, et en même temps un document capital, avec la caution de deux conser - Lvateurs en chef: du musée d’Orsay et du musée des Arts décoratifs. Pour moi, le livre de l’année 2009. Je suis un juge partial, ayant rencontré pour la pre - mière fois Suzanne Lalique à l’étage Rachel sous des cordes à linge d’où pendaient des collections multicolores de gants et de chausses fraîchement teints. Elle régnait encore , à soixante-dix ans passés, sur tous les costumes de la Comédie-Française. «Donner sa robe à sa doublure, vous n’y songez pas! C’est une blonde, la robe est jaune». Elle disait aussi: «Ici, on peut faire n’importe quoi, mais pas n’importe comment». Je l’ai revue au 40 cours Albert 1 er , dans le bel immeuble construit par son père, l’illustre René Lalique, bijoutier et maître-verrier: magasin d’exposition, atelier d’art, et maison de famille superposés sur cinq étages. Elle confiait aux Robert Margerit aurait aimé «Amis de Jean Giraudoux», pour être exposées à Bellac, les maquettes des décors qu’elle avait dessinées et elle- même découpées pour la Maison de Molière, maquettes qui sont aujourd’hui au Palais-Royal, parmi les joyaux de la bibliothèque-musée. Giraudoux avait été adopté comme elle au foyer des Morand, elle était un peu sa jeune sœur.
  • Hamilton Easter Fiel

    Hamilton Easter Fiel

    INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
  • Artist Resources – Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946)

    Artist Resources – Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946)

    Artist Resources – Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864-1946) Alfred Stieglitz Collection and Archive, Art Institute of Chicago The Key Set Stieglitz Collection, National Gallery of Art Stieglitz at The Getty Stieglitz and Camera Work collection, Princeton University Art Museum Explore The National Gallery’s timeline of all known Stieglitz exhibitions, spanning from 1888 to 1946. View archival documents from MoMA’s 1947 exhibition, which comprised two floors and paired Stieglitz’s photography with his private art collection. The following year, MoMA introduced Photo-Secession (American Photography 1902-1910), organized by surviving co-founder Edward Steichen and featuring photography from the the journal Camera Work. The 1999 PBS American Master’s documentary, Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye, charts the photographer’s immense influence and innovation, featuring intimate interviews with his widow, the painter Georgia O’Keefe, museum curators, and scholars. “What is of greatest importance is to hold a moment, to record something so completely that those who see it will relive an equivalent of what has been expressed,“ Stieglitz reflects in recorded audio of his writing, which is threaded throughout the film. Stieglitz, 1934 Photographer: Imogen Cunningham Smithsonian Magazine profiled Stieglitz in 2002 in honor of The National Gallery’s retrospective. Stieglitz was the subject of the NGA’s first exhibition dedicated exclusively to photography, in 1958. In 2011, The Metropolitan Museum of Art debuted the first large-scale exhibition of Stieglitz’s personal collection, acquired by the museum in 1949. Over 200 works display the photographer’s influence with his contemporaries and successive generations, including, among others, works by: Georgia O'Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Constantin Brancusi, Vasily Kandinsky, and Francis Picabia.
  • Rider's Review

    Rider's Review

    OCCULT REVIEW A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE INVESTIGATION OF SUPER­ NORMAL PHENOMENA AND THE STUDY OP PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS E d i t e d b y RALPH SHIRLEY “ Nullius addictus jurare in verba magislri" Price Nin k pbn ce net ; poet free, T b n pen c e. Annual Subscription, N in e S h illin g s (Two Dollars twenty-five Cents). A merican A gents : The International News Company, 85 Duane Street, New York ; The Macoy Publishing Company, 45-49 John Street, New York ; The Western News Company, Chicago. Subscribers in India can obtain the Magazine from A. H. Wheeler A Co., 15 Elgin Road, Allahabad; Wheeler’s Building, Bombay; and#39 Strand, Calcutta; or from the Tkeosophisi Office, Adyar, Madras. All communications to the Editor should be addressed c/o the Publishers, William R id e r A Son, L td ., Cathedral House, Paternoster Row, London, E.C. 4. Contributors are specially requested to put their name and address, legibly written, on all manuscripts submitted. V o l . XXX. DECEMBER 1919 No. 6 NOTES OF THE MONTH IN a series of,very remarkable essays,* which are well described as “ outspoken,” the Dean of St. Paul’s grapples, from a very independent standpoint, with many problems of the present day, a number of which are, indeed, not related to one another, except ,, by the fact that they may, almost all of them, be „ designated as topical. Perhaps the only two not ' falling under this head are those dealing with Cardinal Newman and St. Paul. The two last essays of the book are certainly not likely to attract less attention than the remainder; though it may be questioned whether the Dean is not at his best in some of the others, notably on Our Present Discontents, on the Birth Rate, and on the Future of the English Race.
  • Rebinding of the Camera Work Collection

    Rebinding of the Camera Work Collection

    Rebinding of the Camera Work Collection Heather & Darryl McPherson ABSTRACT Periodicals of Camera Work were The NGA wished to exhibit some of the published in the USA between 1903 and collection but very poor leaf flow resulting 1917, generally in quarterly editions with from the rebinding made this extremely occasional special editions in some years. difficult. A decision was made to rebind Each edition comprised articles the collection to allow safe exhibition. In concerning the photographic arts and doing so, it was decided to rebind them as featured photography of several artists. individual editions as they had been Each edition had been bound by link originally. A methodology was developed stitching of sections and attachment of a that combined good leaf flow with bindings limp paper wraparound cover. as sympathetically aligned with those of the originals. The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) had a complete set of this valuable INTRODUCTION publication. However, the editions had January 2003 marked the centenary of the been pulled down from their original launch of the journal, Camera Work. bindings and rebound into annual Conceived by the legendary American collections. In rebinding, all edges photographer, Alfred Stieglitz, and (including covers), and in most cases the designed by the equally famous Edward spine folds, had been guillotined and the Steichen, Camera Work aimed to promote pages restitched by overcast stitching on and support the work of the newly formed to sawn in cords and completed as case American Photo-Secession movement of bindings. art photographers. Camera Work, a Rebinding of the Camera Work Collection 87 quarterly publication, was initially a vehicle as the former Curator of the Royal for advancing the cause of Pictorialism Photographic Society in England, Pam and those pictorialist photographers Roberts observed, 'Camera Work served selected by Stieglitz.
  • Direct PDF Link for Archiving

    Direct PDF Link for Archiving

    Kurt E. Rahmlow “The admiration one feels for something strange and uncanny”: Impressionism, Symbolism, and Edward Steichen’s Submissions to the 1905 London Photographic Salon Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 15, no. 1 (Spring 2016) Citation: Kurt E. Rahmlow, “‘The admiration one feels for something strange and uncanny’: Impressionism, Symbolism, and Edward Steichen’s Submissions to the 1905 London Photographic Salon,” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 15, no. 1 (Spring 2016), http://www. 19thc-artworldwide.org/spring16/rahmlow-on-impressionism-symbolism-steichen-1905- london-photographic-salon. Published by: Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art. Notes: This PDF is provided for reference purposes only and may not contain all the functionality or features of the original, online publication. Rahmlow: Impressionism, Symbolism, and Edward Steichen’s Submissions to the 1905 London Photographic Salon Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 15, no. 1 (Spring 2016) “The admiration one feels for something strange and uncanny”: Impressionism, Symbolism, and Edward Steichen’s Submissions to the 1905 London Photographic Salon by Kurt E. Rahmlow In August 1904, Alfred Horsley Hinton (1863–1908), editor of the British periodical Amateur Photographer and a founding member of the London-based art photography club the Brotherhood of the Linked Ring (hereafter Linked Ring), wrote to Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) to critique recent photographs by Edward Steichen (1879–1973). In the note, Hinton remarks, I admire Steichen’s work for myself but it is the admiration one feels for something strange and uncanny—I can’t think that such work is healthy or would in this country have a beneficial influence. Many, nay most, of his things were very well exhibited to his fellow artists in his studio.
  • Information to Users

    Information to Users

    Alfred Stieglitz and the opponents of Photo-Secessionism Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Zimlich, Leon Edwin, Jr., 1955- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 10/10/2021 21:07:09 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291519 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy.
  • The Progression of Photographic Image Manipulation in Communication: an Argument Against the "Revolution" of Technological Change

    The Progression of Photographic Image Manipulation in Communication: an Argument Against the "Revolution" of Technological Change

    UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-1992 The progression of photographic image manipulation in communication: An argument against the "revolution" of technological change Cynthia Lynn Wood University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Wood, Cynthia Lynn, "The progression of photographic image manipulation in communication: An argument against the "revolution" of technological change" (1992). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 250. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/bqu5-khy0 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction.
  • Occult Review V29 N3 Mar 1919

    Occult Review V29 N3 Mar 1919

    OCCULT REVIEW A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE INVESTIGATION OF SOPER. NORMAL PHENOMENA AND THE 8TUDY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS E d i t e d b y RALPH SHIRLEY “ Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri” Price Nin bpen c b nkt ; post free, T enphnck. Annual Subscription, N inb S h illin gs (Two Dollars twenty-five Cents). A merican A g e n t s : The International News Company, 85 Duane Street. New York ; The Macoy Publishing Company, 45-49 John Street, New York ; The Curtiss Philosophic Book Co., Inc., 1731 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa.; The Western News Company, Chicago. Subscribers in India can obtain the Magazine from A. H. Wheeler St Co., 15 Elgin Road, Allahabad ; Wheeler's Building, Bombay; and 39 Strand, Calcutta; or from the Theosophist Office. Adyar, Madras. All communications to the Editor should be addressed c/o the Publishers, William R id er St S on, L td ., Cathedral House, Paternoster Row, London, E.C. 4 Contributors are specially requested to put their name and address, legibly written, on all manuscripts submitted. V o l. XXIX. MARCH 1 9 1 9 No 3 NOTES OF THE MONTH AMONG all the men and women whom the world has classed under the general title of “ mystic,” not one certainly occupies so singular a position as Emanuel Swedenborg. If we decide to accept the world’s verdict—and it seems difficult to do other­ wise—and agree to call Swedenborg a mystic, we are confronted by the fact that we can find no parallel either to his personality or to his career, though we search the roll of the mystics of all the ages.
  • Before Zen: the Nothing of American Dada

    Before Zen: the Nothing of American Dada

    Before Zen The Nothing of American Dada Jacquelynn Baas One of the challenges confronting our modern era has been how to re- solve the subject-object dichotomy proposed by Descartes and refined by Newton—the belief that reality consists of matter and motion, and that all questions can be answered by means of the scientific method of objective observation and measurement. This egocentric perspective has been cast into doubt by evidence from quantum mechanics that matter and motion are interdependent forms of energy and that the observer is always in an experiential relationship with the observed.1 To understand ourselves as in- terconnected beings who experience time and space rather than being sub- ject to them takes a radical shift of perspective, and artists have been at the leading edge of this exploration. From Marcel Duchamp and Dada to John Cage and Fluxus, to William T. Wiley and his West Coast colleagues, to the recent international explosion of participatory artwork, artists have been trying to get us to change how we see. Nor should it be surprising that in our global era Asian perspectives regarding the nature of reality have been a crucial factor in effecting this shift.2 The 2009 Guggenheim exhibition The Third Mind emphasized the im- portance of Asian philosophical and spiritual texts in the development of American modernism.3 Zen Buddhism especially was of great interest to artists and writers in the United States following World War II. The histo- ries of modernism traced by the exhibition reflected the well-documented influence of Zen, but did not include another, earlier link—that of Daoism and American Dada.
  • Anne Brigman Visionary in Modern Photography

    Anne Brigman Visionary in Modern Photography

    ANNE BRIGMAN VISIONARY IN MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY Photographer, poet, critic, and mountaineer, Anne Brigman (1869-1950) is best known for her figurative landscape images made in the Sierra Nevada in the early 1900s. During her lifetime, Brigman’s significance spanned both coasts of the United States. In Northern California, where she lived and worked, she was a leading Pictorialist photographer, a proponent of the Arts & Crafts movement, and a participant in the burgeoning Berkeley/Oakland Bohemian community. On the East Coast her work was promoted by Alfred Stieglitz, who elected her to the prestigious Photo-Secession and championed her as a Modern photographer. Her final years were spent in southern California, where she wrote poetry and published a book of photographs and poems, Songs of a Pagan, the year before she died. This retrospective exhibition, with loans drawn from prestigious private and public collections around the world, is the largest presentation of Brigman’s work to date. ***** The exhibition is curated by Ann M. Wolfe, Andrea and John C. Deane Family Senior Curator and Deputy Director at the Nevada Museum of Art. We thank the following individuals for their scholarly contributions and curatorial guidance: Susan Ehrens, art historian and independent curator; Alexander Nemerov, Department Chair and Carl & Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Stanford University; Kathleen Pyne, Professor Emerita of Art History at University of Notre Dame; and Heather Waldroup, Associate Director of the Honors College and Professor of Art History at Appalachian State University. ENTRANCE QUOTE Close as the indrawn and outgoing breath are these songs Woven of faraway mountains … and the planes of the sea … Gleaned from the heights and the depths that a human must know As the glories of rainbows are spun from the tears of the storm.