Grete Stern
Botella del mar (Sueño Nº 5)

Botella del mar (Sueño Nº 5)

© Estate of Grete Stern courtesy Galería Jorge Mara – La Ruche, Buenos Aires

Botella del mar (Sueño Nº 5)
Botella del mar (Sueño Nº 5)
ArtistArgentinean, born Germany, 1904–1999
CultureArgentinean
Titles
  • Botella del mar (Sueño Nº 5)
Date1949, printed 1993
PlaceBuenos Aires, Argentina
MediumGelatin silver print, photomontage
DimensionsImage: 9 3/8 × 11 5/8 in. (23.9 × 29.5 cm)
Sheet: 9 3/8 × 11 5/8 in. (23.9 × 29.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of Joan Morganstern
Object number94.760
Non exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
DescriptionOne of the Bauhaus school’s best-known alumnae, Grete Stern, had cofounded the Berlin studio foto ringl + pit, and begun producing imaginative commercial photomontages. After moving to Buenos Aires with her Argentinian husband, Horacio Coppola, in 1935, Stern continued her successful vocation. Finding that the innovative visual effects that ran through many of her advertising photographs meshed well with the growing bourgeois popularity of psychoanalysis, Stern undertook an extraordinary project for the women’s magazine Idilio. From 1948 to 1951, she created photomontages based on reports of dreams submitted by the magazine’s readers. Accompanying the weekly column “El psicoanálisis le ayuderá” (“Psychoanalysis Will Help You”), Stern’s images distilled middle-class anxieties into striking representations, often lampooning the links between sexual desire and commodity culture that were at the core of much advertising photography. In one installment, Sea in a Bottle (No. 5), a woman wishes to shrink her size, and be placed in a glass bottle, wanting to travel the seas, possibly reflecting a young woman’s desire to get away from her everyday reality.
ProvenanceJoan Morgenstern, Houston; given to MFAH, 1994.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
in pencil, center, verso: Sueño No 5 "Bodella del Mar" de la serie "Sueñes-Fotomontajes"Buenos Aires
Signed and dated in pencil with artist's stamp, center, verso:1949 Printed 1993 Foto Grete Stern

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Dream No. 26: The Eternal Eye
Grete Stern
c. 1951
Gelatin silver print
2024.33
Paper in Glass
Grete Stern
1931, printed 1984
Gelatin silver print
88.106.16
Shell Chair
Grete Jalk
designed 1963, made 1963–1964
Oregon pine and plywood
2020.408
Neckpiece
Deganit Stern Schocken
1989–1990
Gold and silver
2002.4072
Interior Light #36 (Air Shaft, NYC)
Lynn Stern
1984
Gelatin silver print
2007.1639
Soul Music
Howard S. Stern
1937
Gelatin silver print
92.353
Baron LaVelle (Lawrence Jones) in His Home Theatre, Louisville, Kentucky
Stern J. Bramson
February 17, 1962
Gelatin silver print
89.67
Brooch
Deganit Stern Schocken
1992
Silver and silk
2002.4071
Necklace
Deganit Stern Schocken
1984
14k gold, silver, and porcelain
2002.4070
Necklace
Deganit Stern Schocken
1984
Gold, porcelain, and pearl
2002.4069
Brooch
Deganit Stern Schocken
1982
Silver and nylon
2002.4068