id: 161792 accession number: 2001.129 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2001.129 updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:44.132000 Glider, IL, 1979. Ruth Thorne-Thomsen (American, 1943-). Gelatin silver print; image: 12.7 x 10.2 cm (5 x 4 in.); matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Friends of Photography 2001.129 title: Glider, IL title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1979 creation date earliest: 1979 creation date latest: 1979 current location: creditline: Gift of Friends of Photography copyright: --- culture: America, 20th century technique: gelatin silver print department: Photography collection: PH - American 1951-Present type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Ruth Thorne-Thomsen (American, 1943-) - artist Ruth Thorne-Thomsen American, 1943- Ruth Thorne-Thomsen (born in New York City) has described her work as "environmental collage." Since 1976 she has worked extensively with the pinhole camera and paper negatives to achieve soft-focus effects. She often incorporates into her images handmade miniature props (cardboard silhouettes, cones, pyramids, and ships), constructing mythic tableaux that recall forms and fragments from antiquity, as well as 20th-century surrealism. Such series include Expeditions (1976-84), Door (1981-83), Prima Materia (1985-87), Views from the Shoreline (1986-87), and Songs of the Sea (begun 1991). For her series titled Messengers (1989-90), portraits of statues blurred as if in motion. Thorne-Thomsen increased her scale from 4 x 5 inches to 4 x 5 feet, giving her subjects Pygmalion life. Drawing references from philosophy, literature, myth, and dreams, she configures a psychic territory where archetype and reality playfully coalesce. Before devoting herself to photography and teaching, Thorne-Thomsen was a dancer, earning an F.A. in dance from Columbia College (1963) and touring with the Sybil Shearer Dance Company (1964-65), based in Northbrook, Illinois. After earning a B.F.A. in painting from Southern Illinois University and a B.F.A. in photography from Columbia College, she studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (M.F.A., 1975), then worked as staff photographer for the Chicago Sun-Times (1978). She has won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts (1982, 1989) and La Napoule Foundation, France (1989). She taught photography at Columbia College (1974-83) and in the department of fine arts and theater at the University of Colorado (1983-89). Thorne-Thomsen lives in Philadelphia and Moab, Utah. A.W. --- measurements: Image: 12.7 x 10.2 cm (5 x 4 in.); Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Printed in pencil on recto: "GLIDER-'EXPEDITIONS' IL. 1979 15/25" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Gifts from the CMA Friends of Photography opening date: 2002-12-07T00:00:00 Gifts from the CMA Friends of Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 7, 2002-April 23, 2003). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; December 7, 2002 - April 23, 2003. "Gifts from the CMA Friends of Photography."', 'opening_date': '2002-12-07T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES