id: 154834
accession number: 1989.413
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1989.413
updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:06.737000
Fence, Orchard, Ditch, Velarde, New Mexico, 1973. William Clift (American, b. 1944). Gelatin silver print; image: 17 x 24.2 cm (6 11/16 x 9 1/2 in.); paper: 18.4 x 25.2 cm (7 1/4 x 9 15/16 in.); matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Museum members in 1989 1989.413 © 1985 William Clift
title: Fence, Orchard, Ditch, Velarde, New Mexico
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1973
creation date earliest: 1973
creation date latest: 1973
current location:
creditline: Gift of Museum members in 1989
copyright: © 1985 William Clift
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culture: America, 20th century
technique: gelatin silver print
department: Photography
collection: PH - American 1951-Present
type: Photograph
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* William Clift (American, b. 1944) - artist
William Clift American, 1944- Throughout his career, William Brooks Clift III has photographed the land and architecture as quiet yet complex subjects filled with cultural and spiritual metaphor. Celebrating the nuances of light and composition in his images, which are primarily black and white, he is a careful and thoughtful technician. He digests, rather than dramatizes, his subjects, often spending several years exploring a theme before completing it. Born in Boston, Clift first took an interest in photography at age 10, building his own darkroom. As a teenager, he attended a workshop with Paul Caponigro. Beginning in 1962, Clift spent eight years specializing in architectural subjects, commissioned on a freelance basis by various organizations -- including the Massachusetts Council on the Arts for an extensive documentation of Old Boston City Hall (1970). He moved to Santa Fe in 1971 and began to photograph the landscape that continues to inspire his work. He has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1972, 1979) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1973, 1980). Returning to Boston in 1975, Clift photographed the architecture of Beacon Hill. During 1975-76 he worked for the Joseph Seagram and Son's bicentennial project on American county courthouses. In 1977 he traveled to France to take pictures of Mont-Saint-Michel and began an ongoing project picturing the sculpture of Juan Hamilton. Commissions followed from AT&T for their American Images project (1978) and from the Reader's Digest Association (1985-86) to photograph the Hudson River Highlands with Steven Shore, who eventually discontinued the endeavor. A one-person exhibition of Clift's work, Certain Places, was on view at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth (1987). That same year he received the Governor's Award for Excellence and Achievement in the Arts in New Mexico and began a color project with Polaroid materials, making family pictures that were exhibited in the Equitable Gallery, New York (1992). He has produced and distributed two books, Certain Places (1987) and A Hudson Landscape (1994). Clift continues to photograph the mountain and desert landscape throughout the southwestern United States. He lives in Santa Fe. A.W.
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measurements: Image: 17 x 24.2 cm (6 11/16 x 9 1/2 in.); Paper: 18.4 x 25.2 cm (7 1/4 x 9 15/16 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.)
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inscriptions:
inscription: Written in pencil on recto: "Fence, Orchard, Ditch, Velarde New Mexico 1973 / William Clift [signed] / Print #6, 6 11/16 x 9 8/16"; in black felt pen on verso: "© William Clift 1985 / Reproduction Rights Remain with / William Clift or his Estate"
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remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Contemporary American Photographers
opening date: 1992-11-18T05:00:00
Contemporary American Photographers. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 18, 1992-January 3, 1993).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
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PROVENANCE
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
E. H. T. "The Year in Review: Selections 1989." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 2 (1990): 38-78.
page number: p. 69, no. 73
url: www.jstor.org/stable/25160106
Hinson, Tom E. "Contemporary American Photographs: An Exhibition." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 79, no. 9 (1992): 306-51.
page number: p. 346, no. 6, repr. cover
url: www.jstor.org/stable/25161375
Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
page number: Reproduced: P. 126
url:
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IMAGES