Jerry N. Uelsmann
Experimental Design Project Using Photographic Materials

Artist Jerry N. Uelsmann (American, 1934–2022)American, 1934–2022

CultureAmerican

Titles

Experimental Design Project Using Photographic Materials

Date1958

MediumGelatin silver print with collage

DimensionsImage: 7 7/16 × 7 in. (18.9 × 17.8 cm)
Sheet: 7 7/16 × 7 in. (18.9 × 17.8 cm)
Mount: 11 × 8 5/16 in. (28 × 21.1 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund, The Manfred Heiting Collection

Object number2002.2497

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Special Collections

Manfred Heiting Collection of Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionAmid a climate in which straight, Modernist photographs represented the pinnacle of artistic achievement in the medium, Jerry Uelsmann broke with that style, reviving the techniques of collage and combination printing pioneered by Victorian art photographers. His pictures, made rather than taken, are filled with surprising juxtapositions, implied symbolism, and bizarre contrasts of scale. Uelsmann’s work is now considered an important precursor to the seamless composites associated with digital photography and Photoshop.

ProvenanceEx-collection Graham Nash; Sotheby's, New York, 4/1990.

Bought by Manfred Heiting from Sotheby's, New York, 4/24/1986.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

upper left corner of mount " I U Ed one[circled]", upper right " 2500 ",lower left "1595 ", left side "521"

lower right corner below image in pencil " J.N.U.1958",verso of mount lower right in ink " 1958 Jerry Uelsmann "

printed bottom edge of cover sheet " experimental design project using photographic materials jerry uelsmann "

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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