id: 154280 accession number: 1988.89 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1988.89 updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:04.050000 Symbolic Mutation, 1961. Jerry N. Uelsmann (American, 1934–2022). Gelatin silver print; image: 15.7 x 13.9 cm (6 3/16 x 5 1/2 in.); matted: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1988.89 title: Symbolic Mutation title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1961 creation date earliest: 1961 creation date latest: 1961 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: America, 20th century technique: gelatin silver print department: Photography collection: PH - American 1951-Present type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Jerry N. Uelsmann (American, 1934–2022) - artist Jerry N. Uelsmann American, 1934- Symbolism, humor, and discovery characterize the work of Jerry Norman Uelsmann. A student of Minor White at the Rochester Institute of Technology (B.F.A., 1957) and Henry Holmes Smith at Indiana University Graduate School (1958-60), he shared Smith's penchant for exploring and expanding the technical possibilities of the medium. Having mastered straight black-and-white printing, Uelsmann succeeded in achieving the same technical perfection in his double exposures and combination prints, creating within a single frame seamless transitions between straight and manipulated imagery. His fabricated scenes, while perhaps too premeditated to be accurately termed "surreal," frequently refer to archetypal and apocalyptic symbols. One of Uelsmann's best known projects, Massacre of the Innocents (1971), reflects his penchant for mythic iconography. Uelsmann (born in Detroit) is also a respected photographic educator, earning a 1975 award from the University of Florida (where he has taught since 1962) as Teacher/Scholar of the Year. He helped to found Friends of Photography, is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and was visiting professor at the Nihon University of Art, Tokyo (1979). His work has been published extensively and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1967), and in retrospectives organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1970), the San Francisco Museum of Art (1977), George Eastman House, Rochester (1982), and the Samuel P. Horn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida (1994). He has been awarded fellowships from the John Simon Memorial Guggenheim Foundation (1967) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1972) as well as a City of Arles Medal, France (1973). Uelsmann lives in Gainesville. A.W. --- measurements: Image: 15.7 x 13.9 cm (6 3/16 x 5 1/2 in.); Matted: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in black felt pen on verso: "Jerry Uelsmann [signed] 196[? obscured by tape] 1 / 'SYMBOLIC MUTATION"; in pencil: "Jerry Uelsmann / VP / 1961 $2900"; "D.C. #6" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'CMA, March 17 - May 14, 1989: "Photographs: Recent Acquisitions," Gallery 39.', 'opening_date': '1989-03-17T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'CMA, July 10 - August 19, 1990: "The Camera," Classroom Level, no exhibition catalogue.', 'opening_date': '1990-07-10T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. page number: Reproduced: P. 363 url: --- IMAGES