id: 152654 accession number: 1985.46 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.46 updated: 2019-06-05 09:22:46.287000 Tug and New York Skyline, 1922. Ralph Steiner (American, 1899-1986). Gelatin silver print; image: 4.8 x 9.8 cm (1 7/8 x 3 7/8 in.); matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1985.46 title: Tug and New York Skyline title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1922 creation date earliest: 1922 creation date latest: 1922 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: America, 20th century technique: gelatin silver print department: Photography collection: PH - American 1900-1950 type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Ralph Steiner (American, 1899-1986) - artist Ralph Steiner American, 1899-1986 Ralph Steiner (born in Cleveland) was a modernist photographer and filmmaker known for his clear, sharply focused images of everyday America. Having developed an early interest in photography, Steiner spent the year following graduation from Dartmouth College studying at the Clarence H. White School of Photography in New York (1921-22). He worked as a plate engraver at the Manhattan Photogravure Company, then undertook a career as a magazine and advertising photographer. Deeply impressed by the technical quality of Paul Strand's pictures, Steiner spent the summer and early fall of 1929 improving his own technical skills. That same year he also began experimenting with filmmaking, producing the avant-garde film H2O. During the 1930s he continued to make films, producing Surf and Seaweed, Mechanical Principles, and Pie in the Sky. In 1935 Steiner joined Strand as a cameraman on Pare Lorentz's documentary film, The Plow that Broke the Plains, and several years later collaborated with photographer Willard Van Dyke on The City, a documentary shown at the 1939 New York World's Fair. In the early 1940s Steiner moved to Hollywood, where he worked for mgm and rko. Upon his return to New York later in the decade, he resumed his career as a commercial photographer. During the 1960s he was able to spend more time doing his own work, producing both photographs and films. His autobiography, A Point of View (1978), was followed by a book of his cloud photographs, In Pursuit of Clouds (1985). M.M. --- measurements: Image: 4.8 x 9.8 cm (1 7/8 x 3 7/8 in.); Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in pencil on mount: "Ralph Steiner [signed] 1922 neg and print"; "2"; in pencil on verso: "Ralph Steiner / Vintage Print"; in hot pink felt pen "A2 [2 circled]"; in red felt pen "UU"; in black felt pen: "Vintage print--1922-23" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: American Cities: The Artist's View opening date: 1989-10-17T04:00:00 American Cities: The Artist's View. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 17, 1989-January 7, 1990). 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: Shadows and Dreams: Pictorialist Photography in America opening date: 2015-09-05T00:00:00 Shadows and Dreams: Pictorialist Photography in America. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 5, 2015-January 17, 2016). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * CMA, February 12 - April 20, 1986: "Year in Review 1985," CMA Bulletin, 73 (Feb. 1986), p. 66, no. 114.
CMA, March 31 - June 28, 1987: "The Hand of Man: Images of the Industrial Age."
CMA, October 17, 1989 - January 7, 1990: "American Cities: The Artist's View," no exhibition catalogue.
CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art."
The Cleveland Museum of Art (9/5/2015 - 1/17/2016); "Pictorialist Photography" --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: Cleveland-born Ralph Steiner began photographing in his teens, and for many years alternated between his personal photographic work and earning a living doing mostly advertising photography. His work from the 1920s and 1930s, like that of Paul Strand and Walker Evans in that period, used the commonplace objects of urban society—billboards, details of automobiles, and skyscrapers—in semiabstract compositions. This picturesque vista of the New York skyline is an early work, taken while Steiner was a student at the Clarence H. White School of Photography in New York. The beautifully atmospheric composition is distinguished by its bold, graphic quality with the tugboat's smoke adding energy and movement. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES