{
"data": {
"id": 156970,
"accession_number": "1993.129",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Grasses, Wisconsin, 1959. Harry Callahan (American, 1912\u20131999). Vintage gelatin silver print; image: 11.1 x 16.8 cm (4 3/8 x 6 5/8 in.); matted: 30.6 x 35.6 cm (12 1/16 x 14 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Friends of Photography in honor of Evan H. Turner, 1993.129. \u00a9 Harry Callahan, courtesy PaceWildensteinMacGill, New York",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Grasses, Wisconsin",
"creation_date": "1959",
"creation_date_earliest": 1959,
"creation_date_latest": 1959,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "Vintage gelatin silver print",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "PH - American 1951-Present",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 11.1 x 16.8 cm (4 3/8 x 6 5/8 in.); Matted: 30.6 x 35.6 cm (12 1/16 x 14 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.111,
"height_inch": 4,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.168,
"width_inch": 6,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
},
"matted": {
"height": 0.306,
"height_inch": 12,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0625,
"width": 0.356,
"width_inch": 14,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Harry Callahan, courtesy PaceWildensteinMacGill, New York",
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Written in pencil on verso: \"phot. H. Callahan / Grasses, Wisconsin, 1959 / $150 / HC 13311\"; typed on label: \"LL 667-355 / Harry Callahan\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 181802,
"title": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).",
"opening_date": "2006-06-09T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 194095,
"title": "Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24-September 16, 2007).",
"opening_date": "2007-06-24T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "\"1992 Annual Report,\" CMA Bulletin, 80 (July 1993), repr. p. 273.",
"opening_date": "1993-07-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "CMA, September 13 - November 27, 1994: \"Recent Acquisitions: Prints, Drawings, Photographs,\" no exhibition catalogue.",
"opening_date": "1994-09-13T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): \"The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art\", no. 98, p. 121, repr. p. 91.",
"opening_date": "2006-06-09T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art (6/24/07 - 9/16/07); \"Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art\", no exhibition catalogue.",
"opening_date": "2007-06-24T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "In this detail of undulating grasses in Wisconsin, Callahan demonstrated his vigorous interest in formal design and his sensitivity toward the world around him, making the artist one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. This compelling abstract composition is filled with arching, bending, and swaying slivers of form, made distinguishable from the dark ground by bright sunlight.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79947074"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "\"1992 Annual Report.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 6 (1993): 215-95.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 273; Mentioned: p. 161",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161418"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 117",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 90-91, no. 98",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1993.129",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Friends of Photography in honor of Evan H. Turner",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 156970,
"creators": [
{
"id": 71,
"description": "Harry Callahan (American, 1912\u20131999)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Harry Callahan American, 1912-1999\r\n\r\nDetroit native Harry Morey Callahan is recognized as one of the most influential American photographers and teachers of the second half of the 20th century. A self-taught photographer, he became interested in the medium in the late 1930s while working in the accounting department at Chrysler Corporation. He joined the Detroit Photo Guild and in 1941 was greatly inspired by Ansel Adams, who was invited to give a workshop and lecture at the guild.\r\n\tIn 1944 Callahan took a job with the General Motors Photographic Laboratory and two years later began teaching photography at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, in Chicago. He headed the institute's department of photography from 1949-61, then left to establish the photography department at the Rhode Island School of Design. Callahan served as head of the photography program at Rhode Island until 1973 and continued teaching there until his retirement in 1977.\r\n\tInterested in photography as a means of self-expression, Callahan's subjects have ranged from an ongoing series of his wife, Eleanor, to landscapes, seascapes, nature studies, and street scenes. He has also experimented with high-contrast images as well as double exposures, and since his retirement has focused on color work. Among his awards are fellowships from the Graham Foundation (1956) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1972). His work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including one-artist shows at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1976), the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson (1984), and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1996). Callahan lives in Atlanta. M.M.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1912",
"death_year": "1999",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1993-09-15T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1959,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1959",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:51:45.195000"
}
}