id: 154862
accession number: 1989.439
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1989.439
updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:06.890000
Untitled, 1986. Jan Groover (American, 1943–2012). Gelatin silver print, sepia toned; image: 30.3 x 38.5 cm (11 15/16 x 15 3/16 in.); paper: 40.6 x 50.7 cm (16 x 19 15/16 in.); matted: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchased with a grant from the NEA and matched by contributions from Museum members in 1989 1989.439
title: Untitled
title in original language:
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creation date: 1986
creation date earliest: 1986
creation date latest: 1986
current location:
creditline: Purchased with a grant from the NEA and matched by contributions from Museum members in 1989
copyright:
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culture: America, 20th century
technique: gelatin silver print, sepia toned
department: Photography
collection: PH - American 1951-Present
type: Photograph
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catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Jan Groover (American, 1943–2012) - artist
Jan Groover American, 1943-
Jan Groover is often included in discussions about the "new" color photographers of the early 1970s because of her preference and proficiency with emerging color technologies. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, and educated at Pratt Institute (B.F.A., 1965) and Ohio State University (M.A., 1970), Groover began as an abstract painter and taught at the University of Hartford in the early 1970s. She soon turned to photography, first gaining recognition for the serial diptychs and triptychs of automobiles, highways, and city streets she made using the 35mm format and color film. In 1978 she began the still lives for which she is most recognized compositions of kitchen utensils, vegetables, and plants printed up close and larger than life. Although readings of Groover's work have been largely formalist, her images also reveal a witty understanding and appreciation of the history of photography. With a subtle humor, she makes reference to such celebrated 20th-century artists as Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and Edward Weston.
In 1979 Groover began experimenting with platinum-palladium printing and, later, with a banquet camera to effect an elongated horizontal framing. Departing from her tabletop setups, these images are sociologically charged investigations of outdoor spaces such as backyards and fields-large-scale still-life arrangements haphazardly cluttered by lawn chairs, barbecues, and children's toys.
Among Groover's awards are two grants from the New York State Council on the Arts (1975, 1978) and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1978) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1979). Jan Groover, her first monograph, was published in 1976. She has had many one-person exhibitions, including a mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1987), with accompanying catalogue. Other publications include Pure Invention: The Tabletop Still Life (1990) and Jan Groover: Photographs, with introductory text by John Szarkowski (1993).
Groover taught at the State University of New York College at Purchase before moving from her New York City base to her current residence in Montpon-Menesterol, France, where she lives with her husband, Bruce Boice. A.W.
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measurements: Image: 30.3 x 38.5 cm (11 15/16 x 15 3/16 in.); Paper: 40.6 x 50.7 cm (16 x 19 15/16 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.)
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inscription: Written in pencil on recto: "305.3 2/15"; "RMG #G8703.0039-C"
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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. 71, no. 99
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. 349, no. 34
url: www.jstor.org/stable/25161375
"1989 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 6 (1990): 183-259.
page number: Reproduced: p. 254; Mentioned: p. 182
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161289
Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
page number: Reproduced: P. 191
url:
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IMAGES