Nightview, New York

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Images(2)

Artist Berenice Abbott (American, 1898–1991)American, 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

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Department

Photography

Special Collections

Marvins Family Collections

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

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.
Published References Steidl, "Berenice Abbott: Volume II", 2008 cover, frontispiece and p.35. "Berenice Abbott: Photographer: A Modern Vision", The New York Public Library, 1989, pl.9 there titled New York at Night. Empire State Building, 350 Fifth Avenue, West Side, 34th and 35th Streets (General View North), Manhattan Commerce Graphic, Ltd., Berenice Abbott, frontispiece Haworth-Booth, The Folio Society Book of the 100 Greatest Photographs, p.125 Photo Poche, Berenice Abbott, pl.20 Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Signed in pencil on the mount, lower right below image: BERENICE ABBOTT

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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