id: 153772 accession number: 1987.69 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1987.69 updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:01.604000 Akron Nightscape # 1 (The River), 1986. Penny Rakoff (American, b. 1951). Chromogenic process color print (Ektacolor); image: 35.8 x 46.7 cm (14 1/8 x 18 3/8 in.); paper: 40.5 x 50.7 cm (15 15/16 x 19 15/16 in.); matted: 71.1 x 81.3 cm (28 x 32 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Herbert Ascherman, Jr., May Show Purchase Award for Photography, 1990 1987.69 title: Akron Nightscape # 1 (The River) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1986 creation date earliest: 1986 creation date latest: 1986 current location: creditline: Herbert Ascherman, Jr., May Show Purchase Award for Photography, 1990 copyright: --- culture: America, 20th century technique: chromogenic process color print (Ektacolor) department: Photography collection: PH - American 1951-Present type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Penny Rakoff (American, b. 1951) - artist Penny Rakoff American, 1951- An astute understanding of color and light characterizes the images of Penny Rakoff. Trained in painting at the University of Michigan, Rakoff has translated her interest in color theory and composition to her photographic work. By controlling and manipulating natural and artificial light in extended night-time exposures, she conjures spectral, often surreal displays from otherwise banal subject matter. For Color Pleasures of Miami, her earliest body of photographs in this vein (1978), Rakoff traveled the Florida city and its suburbs. The preponderance of illuminated palm trees, lawn ornaments, and glowing swimming pools proved an environment well suited to her concerns. She has continued to explore the fabricated nature of American culture in Akron Landscapes, seeking out residential and industrial sites to photograph at night in her trademark aurora of lights. Rakoff was born in New York City and raised on Long Island. After earning her B.F.A. from the University of Michigan (1973), she pursued photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology (M.F.A., 1976) and with Nathan Lyons at the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester (1978). After teaching for a year at the State University of New York College at Oswego, in 1978 Rakoff relocated to Ohio to accept a position at the University of Akron, where she continues to teach. She is the recipient of awards from the Ohio Arts Council (1981, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1994) and from the Cleveland Museum of Art for her entries in the museum's regional juried exhibition, the May Show (1984, 1987). In recent years, Rakoff has also turned her attention to the production of public art and installations. She lives in Cleveland. A.W.
Biographical information exists in the Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. --- measurements: Image: 35.8 x 46.7 cm (14 1/8 x 18 3/8 in.); Paper: 40.5 x 50.7 cm (15 15/16 x 19 15/16 in.); Matted: 71.1 x 81.3 cm (28 x 32 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in black ink on recto: "Akron Nightscape #1 (The River) Penny Rakoff [signed] 1986" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The May Show: 68th Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists and Craftsmen of the Western Reserve opening date: 1987-04-22T04:00:00 The May Show: 68th Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists and Craftsmen of the Western Reserve. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 22-May 31, 1987). title: The Year in Review for 1987 opening date: 1988-02-24T05:00:00 The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988). 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). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'CMA, April 22 - May 31, 1987: "68th May Show," CMA Bulletin, 74 (April 1987), p. 181, repr. p. 169.', 'opening_date': '1987-04-22T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA, February 24 - April 17, 1988: "Year in Review 1987," CMA Bulletin, 75 (February 1988), p. 67, no. 82.', 'opening_date': '1988-02-24T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art."', 'opening_date': '1997-02-02T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Penny Rakoff Entry Card to 1987 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. page number: url: https://archive.org/details/CMAMS17678 Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. page number: Reproduced: P. 271 url: --- IMAGES