id:			152665
accession number:	1985.47
share license status:	Copyrighted
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.47
updated:		2024-03-26 01:59:57.031000

Agave Design I, 1920s. Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883–1976). Gelatin silver print; image: 34.8 x 27 cm (13 11/16 x 10 5/8 in.); matted: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The A. W. Ellenberger, Sr., Endowment Fund 1985.47 © The Imogen Cunningham Trust

title:				Agave Design I
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1920s
creation date earliest:		1920
creation date latest:		1929
current location:		
creditline:			The A. W. Ellenberger, Sr., Endowment Fund
copyright:			© The Imogen Cunningham Trust

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culture:	America, 20th century
technique:	gelatin silver print
department:	Photography
collection:	PH - American 1900-1950
type:		Photograph
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883–1976)  - artist
Imogen Cunningham American, 1883-1976

Born in Portland, Oregon, Imogen Cunningham became one of America's most admired photographers during a career that spanned seven decades. She took her first photographs in Seattle in 1901 and later worked for photographer Edward S. Curtis (1907-9). While assisting in Curtis's studio, Cunningham learned the platinum printing process, a technique she used for the soft-focus pictorial style she then favored.
	In 1910, upon her return to Seattle after a year studying photographic chemistry at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden, Cunningham opened a portrait studio. She moved to San Francisco with her husband, Roi Partridge, in 1917 and in the 1920s began a series of sharply focused, closeup studies of plant forms. Emphasizing light, form, and abstract pattern, these images were included in Film und Foto, the influential exhibition of avant-garde photography and film held in Stuttgart in 1929. Three years later, Cunningham joined Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Willard Van Dyke, and others in forming Group f/64.
	Throughout her long career Cunningham exhibited her work widely and was featured in several documentaries. Among retrospectives of her photography were Imogen! Imogen Cunningham Photographs 1910-1973, at the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington (1974), and A Centennial Selection at the California Academy of Arts and Sciences, San Francisco (1983). Her subject matter ranged from portraits and closeup studies of plants, flowers, and nudes to unconventional views of modern architecture. Portraiture, however, held special interest. When Cunningham died in 1976, she was working on a book featuring portraits of people over 90 years of age (published posthumously in 1977 as After Ninety). M.M.
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measurements: Image: 34.8 x 27 cm (13 11/16 x 10 5/8 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.)
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inscriptions:

	inscription:	Written in pencil on recto: "Imogen Cunninghan 1920"; in pencil on verso: "79:034"; typed on label: "Agave Design I, 1920s"
	translation:	
	remark:		

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression
	opening date:   2017-08-13T04:00:00
	<i>From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 13-December 31, 2017).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* {'description': 'Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford University, March 31 - April 23, 1967: Imogen Cunningham, photographs, 1921-1967, p. 4 of exhibition catalogue.', 'opening_date': '1967-03-31T00:00:00'}

* {'description': 'CMA, February 12 - April 20, 1986: "Year in Review 1985," CMA Bulletin, 73 (Feb. 1986), p. 66, no. 94.', 'opening_date': '1986-02-12T00:00:00'}

* {'description': 'Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, August 28 - October 3, 1993: "Die Poesie der Form (The Poetry of Form)," Schaffhausen : Edition Stemmle.', 'opening_date': '1993-08-28T00:00:00'}

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PROVENANCE

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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. <em>Catalogue of Photography</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
	page number: 	Reproduced: P. 134
	url:		

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IMAGES