Berenice Abbott
Nightview, New York

Nightview, New York

© Berenice Abbott/ Commerce Graphics

Nightview, New York
Nightview, New York
ArtistAmerican, 1898–1991
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Nightview, New York
Date1932, printed c. 1980
Place depictedNew York City, New York, United States
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 13 5/8 × 10 5/8 in. (34.5 × 26.9 cm)
Sheet: 13 5/8 × 10 5/8 in. (34.6 × 27 cm)
Mount: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mike and Mickey Marvins
Object number2012.618
Non exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
DescriptionBerenice Abbott had three distinct periods of work. In the twenties in Paris, she made incisive portraits of the intellectuals, artists, and notable characters who then populated Paris. She returned to the United States in 1929 and began a decade-long project titled Changing New York, which was partially funded by the Federal Art Project to document the buildings being destroyed to make room for New York’s new skyscrapers. In 1958 she began to photograph scientific phenomena for the Physical Sciences Study Committee at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Abbott’s Nightview, New York captures thousands of skyscraper office lights illuminating the darkness of midtown Manhattan as viewed from the Empire State Building.
Provenance[John Cleary Gallery, Houston; purchased by Michael Marvins and Michele Marvins, Houston, February 4, 1991; given to MFAH, 2012.
Exhibition History“A Photographer’s Collection: Gifts from Michael and Michele Marvins,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, April 4–July 5, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Signed in pencil on the mount, lower right below image: BERENICE ABBOTT
verso of mount lower center a stamp: BERENICE ABBOTT / ABBOT, MAINE 04406 / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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