Paul Strand
Ceramic and Fruit

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Artist Paul Strand (American, 1890–1976)American, 1890–1976

CultureAmerican

Titles

Ceramic and Fruit

Date1916

PlaceUnited States

MediumPlatinum print

DimensionsImage: 9 5/8 × 12 11/16 in. (24.4 × 32.2 cm)
Sheet: 10 × 13 1/8 in. (25.4 × 33.3 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Brown Foundation Accessions Endowment Fund

Object number94.62

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionFrom the moment in 1909 when he graduated from Manhattan’s Ethical Culture School, where he had studied with photographer and sociologist Lewis Hine, Paul Strand was committed to a career in photography. In 1914 or 1915, Strand took his portfolio of soft-focus Pictorialist compositions to Alfred Stieglitz, who praised them but advised him to shift to a more direct, sharply focused approach. Strand took this advice to heart and, in 1916, produced a body of work that bordered on abstraction and more closely related to the work of Cézanne and Picasso that he had seen at Stieglitz’s gallery, 291, than to any photography that had come before. Strand’s pictures from 1916 to 1917 were the last photographs shown at Stieglitz’s gallery and were published in Stieglitz’s influential journal, “Camera Work,” pointing the way to a new, modern style of photography. This platinum print is the only known print of “Ceramic and Fruit.”
Provenance[Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico]; purchased by MFAH, 1994.
Exhibition History"Paul Strand, Circa 1916," Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March 10–May 31, 1998; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, June 19–September 15, 1998.

"A Love Affair with Pictures: 25 Years of Collecting Photographs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 14–December 30, 2001.

"Alfred Stieglitz et son circle. Modernity in New York 1905-1930," Musée d'Orsay, Paris, October 18, 2004–January 16, 2005; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Renia Sofia, Madrid, February 10–May 17, 2005.

Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Inscription: in pencil, upper left edge, verso:
"EW-ABSTR-"

The photograph is neither signed nor dated.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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