Still Life (Centrifugal Expansion of Colors) showcases Gino Severini’s innovative approach to fusing two media: painting and photography. The lively composition features a black-and-white portrait of the artist’s wife, Jeanne Severini, in the upper right. Painted to replicate the effect of photography, the portrait appears to be collaged onto the surface of the work. Fittingly, this painting was first exhibited by photographer Alfred Stieglitz, in 1917, at his gallery 291, a space dedicated to introducing avant-garde European artists to an American audience.
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.
Alfred Stieglitz, Severini, exh. cat. (New York: Gallery of the Photo Secession, 1917), n.p., cat. 10, as Nature morte (expansion centrifuge de couleurs).
Dorothy Norman, Beginnings and Landmarks: ‘291’ 1905–1917, exh. cat. (New York: An American Place, 1937), n.p., cat. 67, as Nature Morte, about 1915.
Henry Clifford and Carl Zigrosser, History of an American, Alfred Stieglitz: ‘291’ and after, exh. cat. (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1944), 15, cat. 113, as Nature Mort.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), 416, as Still Life with Picture.
Joan M. Lukach, “Severini’s 1917 Exhibition at Stieglitz’s ‘291’,” Burlington Magazine 113 (1971), 197, 200, 206–207, figs. 31–2, 44 (ill.), as Nature Morte (expansion centrifuge de couleurs).
A. James Speyer and Courtney Graham Donnell, Twentieth Century European Paintings (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), 69, cat. 3G6, as Still Life with Picture.
Daniela Fonti, Gino Severini, Catalogo ragionato (Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1988), 248 (ill.), cat. 260, as Nature Morte (Expansion centrifuge de couleurs).
Anne Coffin Hanson, Severini futurista: 1912–1917 exh. cat. (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1995), 121–23 (ill.), cat. 36, as Still Life: Centrifugal Expansion of Colors, 1916.
New York, Gallery of the Photo Secession (Gallery 291), Severini, Mar. 6–17, 1917, cat. 10, as Nature morte (expansion centrifuge de couleurs).
New York, An American Place, Beginnings and Landmarks: ‘291’ 1905–1917, Oct. 27–Dec. 27, 1937, cat. 67, as Nature Morte, about 1915.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, History of an American, Alfred Stieglitz: ‘291’ and after: Selections from the Stieglitz Collection, Summer 1944, cat. 113, as Nature Mort.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Alfred Stieglitz: His Collection, June 10–Aug. 31, 1947, no cat., checklist no. 105, as Nature Morte, 1917.
Art Institute of Chicago, Alfred Stieglitz: His Photographs and his Collection, Feb. 2–29, 1948, no cat.
New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, Severini futurista: 1912–1917, Oct. 20, 1995–Jan. 7, 1996, cat. 36; Fort Worth, TX, Kimbell Art Museum, Feb. 11–Apr. 7, 1996, as Still Life: Centrifugal Expansion of Colors, 1916.
Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 6, 2013–Feb. 16, 2014, no cat. no.
The artist; Alfred Stieglitz (died 1946), 1916 [Lukach 1971]; Stieglitz Estate (Georgia O’Keefe, executor), 1946; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 9, 1949.
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