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Chicken Market, 55 Hester Street, Manhattan

A work made of gelatin silver print.

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  • A work made of gelatin silver print.

Date:

February 11, 1937

Artist:

Berenice Abbott
American, 1898–1991

About this artwork

Berenice Abbott’s Changing New York project, an ambitious attempt to record the rapid mutations of modern-day New York, found great support in the galleries and museums of the city. In 1930, at the beginning of her research, Abbott showed her photographs at the Museum of Modern Art, a success followed by one-person exhibitions at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932 and the Museum of the City of New York in 1934. Abbott also received funding from the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) Federal Arts Project, as noted in this photograph’s credit line. Her application to the WPA addressed New York’s fast tempo and emphasized “the vanishing instant,” yet Abbott’s studiously detailed compositions, prepared with a large-format camera and tripod, do not reflect this sense of rapidity. Abbott hoped her images would ultimately be valued as “memorials of the metropolis.”

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Berenice Abbott

Title

Chicken Market, 55 Hester Street, Manhattan

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1937

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Inscriptions

Unmarked recto; stamped and inscribed verso, center, pink ink and graphite: "FEDERAL ART PROJECT / "Changing New York" / PHOTOGRAPHS BY BERENICE ABBOTT [in rectangle/slightly obscured by brown paper] / Title: [stamped in pink ink] Chicken Market [inscribed in graphite] / Place: [stamped in pink ink] 55 Hester Street, Manhattan [inscribed in graphite] / Angle of View: / Date: [stamped in pink ink] [illegible/obscured by brown paper] 11, 1937 [inscribed in graphite] / Neg. # [stamped in pink ink] [illegible/pbscured by brown paper] Code: [stamped in pink ink] II. C. 1. / III. A. 2. [?] [inscribed in graphite]"; inscribed and signed verso, lower left, in graphite: "Chicken Market / 55 Hester St. N.Y.C. / Berenice Abbott"

Dimensions

Image/paper: 48.4 × 38.2 cm (19 1/16 × 15 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

The Art Institute of Chicago, Works Progress Administration Allocation

Reference Number

1943.1407

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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