Artist
Alma Lavenson (American, 1897–1989)American, 1897–1989
CultureAmerican
Titles
- Union Oil Tanks
Date1931
PlaceOakland, California, United States
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 10 13/16 × 8 in. (27.4 × 20.3 cm)
Sheet: 10 13/16 × 8 in. (27.4 × 20.3 cm)
Sheet: 10 13/16 × 8 in. (27.4 × 20.3 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Mundy Companies
Object number83.1
Not on view
Explore Further
Department
PhotographyObject Type
Along with Imogen Cunningham and Ansel Adams, Alma Lavenson was a member of Group f/64, a San Francisco-based photographic organization dedicated to a new aesthetic of sharply focused, carefully composed images. Unlike the other f/64 photographers who chose the natural world as their primary subject, Lavenson gravitated toward the industrial, as with the large oil tanks pictured here. According to the artist, “I never took them as machinery. I always saw them as a composition of some sort.”
Provenance[David Mancini Gallery, Houston]; purchased by MFAH, 1983.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
no apparent inscriptions
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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