Barbara Morgan’s Photographic Interpretation of American Culture, 1935-1980 by ©2008 Brett Knappe Submitted to the Kress Foundation Department of the History of Art and the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ___________________ Dr. John Pultz, Chair ___________________ Dr. David Cateforis ___________________ Dr. Steve Goddard ___________________ Date submitted The Dissertation Committee for Brett Knappe certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Barbara Morgan’s Photographic Interpretation of American Culture, 1935-1980 Chairperson:_______________________ Date Approved:_____________________ ii Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my best friend in graduate school– my wife Stephanie. Her love and support were vital from my first day of classes until the day I defended. Thank you. iii Acknowledgements I discovered Barbara Morgan while searching for a paper topic in the Fall 2001 Franklin D. Murphy seminar on American art of the 1930s led by Dr. David Cateforis and Dr. Charles Eldredge with guest professor Dr. Wanda Corn. All three professors encouraged my initial interest in Morgan and assisted me in situating her artwork in the era between the wars. The next semester, a second paper discussing Morgan’s book, Summer’s Children , for a seminar on portrait photography led by Dr. John Pultz, cemented my interest in this fascinating artist. From that point forward, Dr. Pultz helped me to focus my research and guided me through the writing and editing process. My dissertation research would not have been possible without the support of the library staff at the Murphy Art and Architecture Library at the University of Kansas, including Susan Craig, Jan Altenbernd, Ann Snow, and Heather Howard; Kay Brandt and Priscilla Ebel at the Collins Library at Baker University; the Inter-Library Loan departments at both the University of Kansas and Baker University; the staff of the Bruce Silverstein Gallery in New York; and Joan Stone, who shared her knowledge of modern dance. I also wish to give special thanks to Lloyd and Janet Morgan of the Barbara Morgan Archive, whose assistance and support were invaluable. In addition to Dr. Pultz’s support throughout all the stages of writing, I wish to thank Dr. Cateforis and Dr. Steve Goddard for their help in editing; Dr. Sherry Fowler and Dr. Michelle Heffner Hayes for their participation in my defense; and Maud Humphrey for her tireless efforts in answering my countless questions regarding departmental policies and procedures through the years. iv For keeping food on our table throughout the writing process, I would like to thank the Kress Foundation Department of Art History at the University of Kansas and chair Linda Stone-Ferrier; Washburn University and chair of the Art Department Glenda Taylor; the Kansas City Art Institute and chair of the Liberal Arts Department Phyllis Moore; the former and current staff of the Spencer Museum of Art including my supervisors Dr. Pultz and Dr. Goddard, interim director Fred Pawlicki, and director Saralyn Reece Hardy; and Baker University, especially former chair of the Art Department Inge Balch and current chair Lee Mann, who together brought me to Baker. Additional financial support was generously awarded by the Henry Luce Foundation. All academic and financial assistance would have gone for naught, had it not been for my family. I wish to thank my wife Stephanie, who has supported me as long as I have been in Kansas; my parents, Ken and Leann Knappe, who have always been there for me without complaint (or grandchildren to dote on); my parents-in-law, Don and Joyce Fox; my brother-in-law Ben Fox; and all of our friends through the years, many of whom have scattered across the country. I also wish to thank our cat, Endymion, who provided a more subtle form of emotional support, and the unborn child my wife and I are expecting, who imparted the final motivation to defend my dissertation before her birth. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv Abstract vii Figure List ix Introduction 1 Chapter One: Spring on Madison Square 7 and the Early Photomontages, 1936-1945 Chapter Two: The Dance Photographs 42 Chapter Three: Light Abstractions 105 Chapter Four: Morgan and Books 142 Chapter Five: The Late Montages 188 Illustrations Page 217 Bibliography 218 vi Abstract In 1935, Barbara Morgan, a recent arrival in Depression-era New York, reinvented her career as an artist when she abandoned painting and adopted the medium of photography. In the four-and-a-half decades that followed, Morgan witnessed the remaining years of the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean Conflict, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and Three Mile Island. This dissertation will trace the photographic oeuvre of Morgan as she responded to these events both directly and indirectly, while simultaneously tracking the important artistic and cultural trends of each decade. The first chapter discusses Morgan’s early photomontage work, in which she pushed the boundaries of American photography while exploring diverse metaphors for metropolitan splendor and urban isolation as well as the anxieties of the Great Depression and hope for a better future. Morgan’s 1941 book Martha Graham: Sixteen Dances in Photographs anchors the second chapter. The influential dance photographs that comprise this publication highlight Morgan’s modernist interpretations of Martha Graham’s early dances and allow Morgan to examine beauty, strength, and a complex series of emotions through simple gestures and movement. The third chapter uses the light abstraction Morgan employed as a tailpiece for Sixteen Dances as the starting point to investigate her connections to broader artistic trends in the United States during and after the Second World War. In 1951, Morgan published Summer’s Children , a photographic account of life in a summer camp that marked a major departure for the artist. Chapter four examines this book in the context of the Cold War and considers such diverse topics as summer camps, progressive education, fear-mongering, and the vii rise of the photo-spread. In the last two decades of her career, Morgan returned to the medium of photomontage. The fifth chapter examines this period, in which Morgan protested nuclear proliferation, environmental indifference, a perceived lack of scientific morality, and violent entertainment through her montages. viii Figure List All figures are black-and-white photographs unless otherwise noted. All illustrations herein are protected under the laws of copyright. ©Barbara Morgan, The Barbara Morgan Archive. Figure 1.1 Morgan, Spring on Madison Square , 1938 Figure 1.2 Morgan, Third Avenue El with Cars , 1939 Figure 1.3 Morgan, Use Litter Basket , 1943 Figure 1.4 Morgan, Third Avenue El , 1936 Figure 1.5 Morgan, Macy’s Window , 1939 Figure 1.6 Morgan, Kleenex , 1940 Figure 1.7 Morgan, City Shell , 1938 Figure 1.8 Morgan, Protest , 1940 Figure 2.1 Morgan, Letter to the World (Swirl) , 1940 Figure 2.2 Morgan, Rain Dancers , 1931 [Watercolor] Figure 2.3 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 17, 1941 Figure 2.4 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 19, 1941 Figure 2.5 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Pages 20 & 21, 1941 Figure 2.6 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Pages 22 & 23, 1941 Figure 2.7 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 27 (Bottom Photograph), 1941 Figure 2.8 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 29, 1941 Figure 2.9 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 30, 1941 Figure 2.10 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 31, 1941 Figure 2.11 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 33, 1941 Figure 2.12 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 34, 1941 ix Figure 2.13 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 35 (Top Photograph), 1941 Figure 2.14 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 35 (Bottom Photograph), 1941 Figure 2.15 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 38, 1941 Figure 2.16 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 39, 1941 Figure 2.17 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 40 (Top Photograph), 1941 Figure 2.18 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 40 (Bottom Photograph), 1941 Figure 2.19 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 41, 1941 Figure 2.20 Morgan, Doris Humphrey, With My Red Fires (Swirl) , 1938 Figure 2.21 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 53, 1941 Figure 2.22 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 54 (Top Photograph), 1941 Figure 2.23 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 54 (Bottom Photographs), 1941 Figure 2.24 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 55, 1941 Figure 2.25 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 74 (Top Photograph), 1941 Figure 2.26 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 75, 1941 Figure 2.27 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Pages 76 & 77, 1941 Figure 2.28 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Pages 78 & 79, 1941 Figure 2.29 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Pages 80 & 81, 1941 Figure 2.30 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Pages 94 & 95, 1941 Figure 2.31 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Pages 88 & 89, 1941 Figure 2.32 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 133, 1941 Figure 2.33 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 136, 1941 Figure 2.34 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 137, 1941 Figure 2.35 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 114, 1941 x Figure 2.36 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 120, 1941 Figure 2.37 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 123, 1941 or Morgan, Letter to the World (Kick) , 1940 Figure 2.38 Morgan, Sixteen Dances Page 125, 1941 Figure 3.1 Morgan, Light Abstraction , 1940 Figure 3.2 Morgan, Samadhi , 1940 Figure 3.3 Morgan, Cadenza , 1940 Figure 3.4 Morgan, Emanation I , 1940 Figure 3.5 Morgan, Opacities , 1944 Figure 3.6 Morgan, Layout , 1946 Figure 3.7 Morgan, Pure Energy and Neurotic Man , 1941 Figure 3.8 Morgan, Serpent Light III , 1948 Figure 3.9 Morgan, Trajectories , 1946 Figure 3.10 Morgan, Light Waves , 1945 Figure 3.11 Morgan, Saeta