id: 115305 accession number: 1935.99 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1935.99 updated: 2023-04-23 11:15:52.905000 Georgia O'Keeffe- Hand and Wheel, 1933. Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864–1946). Gelatin silver print; image: 24.2 x 19.2 cm (9 1/2 x 7 9/16 in.); matted: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Cary Ross, Knoxville, Tennessee 1935.99 title: Georgia O'Keeffe- Hand and Wheel title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1933 creation date earliest: 1933 creation date latest: 1933 current location: creditline: Gift of Cary Ross, Knoxville, Tennessee copyright: --- culture: America, 20th century technique: gelatin silver print department: Photography collection: PH - American 1900-1950 type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864–1946) - artist Photographer, writer, publisher, gallery owner, leader of the Photo-Secession, and mentor to numerous other photographers, Alfred Stieglitz was a pivotal force during the late 19th and 20th centuries in promoting photography in America and gaining its acceptance as an art form. He also pioneered in bringing modern art to this country through the avant-garde European and American work presented in the pages of his well-known journal, Camera Work, and at his gallery, "291." Stieglitz (born in Hoboken, New Jersey) first became interested in photography in the early 1880s while studying mechanical engineering in Germany at the polytechnic institute in Charlottenburg (now a suburb of Berlin). Following a class with the great photochemist Hermann Wilhelm Vogel, Stieglitz turned his attention to photography and soon began writing technical articles on the subject for European journals. In 1887 he won a prize for a photograph submitted to the Holiday Work Competition sponsored by Amateur Photographer magazine. When he returned to the United States three years later, Stieglitz became a partner in the Photochrome Engraving Company; running a business did not interest him, however, and his association with the company lasted only five years. In addition to pursuing his own photographic work and writing articles on pictorial photography for various American journals during the 1890s, Stieglitz became editor of the American Amateur Photographer in 1893. Four years later he took on the editorship of Camera Notes, the journal of the newly formed Camera Club of New York. In 1902 Stieglitz organized the first Photo-Secession exhibition at the National Arts Club in New York, launching an organization that was to play a major role in the fight for recognition of photography as an art form. At the end of the year he began publishing Camera Work, the journal of the Photo-Secession, which soon became one of the premier photographic publications of the day (the first issue, dated January 1903, was published in December 1902). In 1905, with the assistance of painter and photographer Edward Steichen, Stieglitz opened the Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue. The gallery, which soon became known as "291," provided Stieglitz with a center from which to promote art photography and exhibit the work of its finest practitioners. In addition to presenting work by the most advanced American and European pictorial photographers, Stieglitz began showing the work of modern European artists, including Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Cézanne. He also organized numerous exhibitions of art photography for museums and expositions in this country and in Europe, including the famous 1910 International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography at the Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo. After closing "291" in 1917, Stieglitz focused on his own work, beginning a series of portraits of artist Georgia O'Keeffe (whom he married in 1924) and a series of cloud pictures called Equivalents, which he exhibited in the 1920s at the Anderson Gallery in New York. During these years he also produced a group of photographs of New York City skyscrapers, as well as images of Lake George, New York. Stieglitz continued to photograph into the 1930s. He also ran two galleries from the mid-1920s until his death: the Intimate Gallery (1925-29) and An American Place (1929-46). Both galleries presented the work of a small group of American modernists, including O'Keeffe, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Paul Strand, as well as Stieglitz's photographs. M.M. --- measurements: Image: 24.2 x 19.2 cm (9 1/2 x 7 9/16 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in pencil on recto: "Georgia O'Keeffe's Hand / & Wheel - 1933 / Alfred Stieglitz [signed]" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Masters of the Camera: Stieglitz, Steichen, and Their Successors opening date: 1976-11-10T05:00:00 Masters of the Camera: Stieglitz, Steichen, and Their Successors. The American Federation of Arts, New York, NY (organizer) (November 10, 1976-January 10, 1977). title: The Modern Spirit: American Painting 1908-35 opening date: 1977-08-19T04:00:00 The Modern Spirit: American Painting 1908-35. Gallery of the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh (August 19-September 11, 1977); Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (September 28-November 20, 1977). title: The Precisionist Aesthetic in American Art opening date: 1989-01-24T05:00:00 The Precisionist Aesthetic in American Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 24-April 9, 1989). title: Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 1996-11-24T05:00:00 Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997). title: The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2006-06-09T00:00:00 The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006). title: Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2007-06-24T00:00:00 Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24-September 16, 2007). title: From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression opening date: 2017-08-13T04:00:00 From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 13-December 31, 2017). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Exhibition of Photographs. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 12, 1934-January 13, 1935). * Masters of the Camera: Stieglitz, Steichen, and Their Successors. The American Federation of Arts, New York, NY (1976-1977). cat. p. 19, repr. p. 67. * The Modern Spirit: American Painting 1908-35. The Arts Council of Great Britain, London (1977). * The Automobile and Culture.The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (July 21, 1984-January 6, 1985; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (June 9, 1985-September 9, 1985). * Two Lives: Georgia O'Keeffe & Alfred Stieglitz. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC (December 12, 1992-April 4, 1993); IBM Gallery of Science and Arts, New York, NY (April 27-June 26, 1993); The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN (July 17-September 12, 1993); The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX (October 2-December 5, 1993). cat p. 14, repr. p. 116. --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: One of the first photographs to enter the museum’s collection was Alfred Stieglitz’s close-up of the hand of his wife, the painter Georgia O’Keeffe. digital description: Georgia O’Keeffe lovingly caresses the spare tire of her Ford V-8 convertible coupe. The image was made during her reunion with her husband—and much beloved car—after an extended convalescence following a nervous breakdown. O’Keeffe had paid for the car herself; for her it was not just a glossy object of consumer desire but symbolized independence and freedom. wall description: One of the first photographs to enter the museum’s fine art collection was Alfred Stieglitz’s close-up of the hand of his wife, the painter Georgia O’Keeffe. She lovingly caresses the spare tire of her Ford V-8 convertible coupe. The image was made during her reunion with her husband—and much beloved car—after an extended convalescence following a nervous breakdown. O’Keeffe had paid for the car herself; for her it was not just a glossy object of consumer desire but symbolized independence and freedom. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Sims, Lowery Stokes. The persistence of geometry: form, content, and culture in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. page number: no. 74, p. 119, repr. p. 71 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, and Tom E. Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. [Cleveland, OH]: The Museum, 1996. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 42-43; reproduced: P. 332 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 10, December 1996 page number: Mentioned & reproduced: cover url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMM1996-10 Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 311 url: Tannenbaum, Barbara. “From Long Shot to Close-up: A brief history of the photography collection.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 63, no. 1 (2023): 30-33. page number: Reproduced: P. 31. url: --- IMAGES