For almost three decades, the former actor Eugene Atget systematically, often serially, documented everything about Paris that seemed to be vanishing with the encroachments of modernization. Impeccably composed, with rich and varied textures and forms, his images range from unpeopled streets, parks, and monuments to cafes, street vendors, and shop windows. In Boulevard de Strasbourg (Corsets), rows of hourglass-shaped busts emerge out of darkness, while a dangling corset swings in the cracked doorway, animating the entire scene (Atget’s old-fashioned camera often recorded moving objects as blurred). Atget sold these cultural documents for modest sums to artists, craftspeople, and institutions interested in preserving the past. It was not until after 1925, when his work was publicized by the expatriate American artists Man Ray and Berenice Abbott, that his photographs began to be recognized by a wider art world.
Date
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Julien Levy Collection, Gift of Jean and Julien Levy
Reference Number
1975.1130
Extended information about this artwork
Wood, James N. and Teri J. Edelstein. 1997. “The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide.” Publications Department of the Art Institute of Chicago. p 175.
Wood, James N. 2000. “Treasures from The Art Institute of Chicago.” Hudson Hills Press, Inc. p. 241.
Wood, James N. 2003. “The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide - Revised Edition.” Publications Department of the Art Institute of Chicago. p 175.
Travis, David. 2005. “Paris: Photographs from a Time that Was.” Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press. p. 51.
Groom, Gloria. 2012. “Impressionism, Fashion & Modernity.” Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. p. 299.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Photographs from the Julien Levy Collection: Starting with Atget,” December 11, 1976–February 20, 1977; traveled to the International Center of Photography, New York, April 21-May 29, 1977; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, November 4-December 18 1977; Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 13-Ferbruary 26, 1978; Lakeview Center for the Arts and Sciences, Peoria, Illinois, March 16-April 30, 1978; and Cincinnati Art Museum, November 17-December 24, 1978. (David Travis)
Berlin, Germany, Berlinsche Galerie, “Station Der Moderne,” September 25, 1988–January 6, 1989.
Paris, France, Centre Georges Pompidou, “L’invention d’un Art,” October 12, 1989–January 1, 1990.
San Jose Museum of Art, “Bystander: A History of Street Photography,” January 16–April 4, 1999.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Paris: Photographs from a Time that Was,” August 13–November 6, 2005. (David Travis)
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Mind at Play,” June 14–September 7, 2008. (David Travis)
Art Institute of Chicago, “Photography on Display: Modern Treasures,” May 9–September 13, 2009.
Paris, France, the Musée d’Orsay, “Impressionism, Fashion & Modernity,” September 25, 2012-January 20, 2013; traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, February 19-May 27, 2013; and the Art Institute of Chiago, June 26-September 29, 2013.(Gloria Groom) (Chicago only)
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