Alfred Stieglitz campaigned throughout the first half of the twentieth century to legitimize photography and modern art. He founded an exhibiting organization, the Photo-Secession, then the periodical Camera Work, and finally a series of galleries. The most influential of these, the gallery known simply as 291, operating from 1908 until 1917, introduced the work of such leaders of the European avant-garde as Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso. Georgia O’Keeffe, who became Stieglitz’s wife in 1924, was among the progressive American artists whose work he also exhibited at 291. In a search for objective truth and pure form, the innovative photographer took some five hundred photographs of O’Keeffe between 1917 and 1937. The essence of O’Keeffe, he felt, was not confined to her head and face alone; equally expressive were her torso, feet, and especially her hands, as seen here. What resulted is a “composite portrait” of the painter, in which each photograph, revealing her intrinsic nature at a particular moment, can stand alone as an independently expressive form. When these serial images are viewed as a whole, they portray the essence of O’Keeffe’s many different “selves.”
For more on the Alfred Stieglitz collection at the Art Institute, along with in-depth object information, please visit the website: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection.
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.
IIIF Manifest
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Wood, James N. and Teri J. Edelstein. 1997. “The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide.” Art Institute of Chicago. p. 176.
Wood, James N. 2000. “Treasures from The Art Institute of Chicago.” Hudson Hills Press, Inc. p. 255.
Wood, James N. 2003. “The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide - Revised Edition.” Art Institute of Chicago. p 176.
Severson, Douglas G. 2005.“ ‘Treated by Steichen’: The Palladium Prints of Alfred Stieglitz.” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, vol. 31. no. 2. p. 77, fig. 3.
Sharp, Robert V., Elizabeth Stepina and Susan E. Weidemeyer. 2009. “The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide.” Art Institute of Chicago. p. 273.
Druick, Douglas and Robert V. Sharp. 2013. “The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide.” Art Institute of Chicago. p. 287.
Matthew S. Witkovsky et al., “The Art Institute of Chicago Field Guide to Photography and Media,” eds. Antawan I. Byrd, Elizabeth Siegel, and Carl Fuldner, pl. 18, p. 47 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2023).
Chicago, Illinois, Art Institute of Chicago, “A History of Photography from Chicago Collection,” April 24–June 6, 1982.
New York, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “The New Vision: Photography Between the World Wars,” September 22-December 31, 1989; traveled to San Franciso Museum of Modern Art, February 28-April 22, 1990; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, May 10-July 15, 1990; Art Institute of Chicago, September 15- December 1, 1990; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, February 5-April 28, 1991; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, June 8-August 4, 1991.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Crossing the Line: Photography Reconsidered,” January 29–June 4, 2000. (David Travis)
Art Institute of Chicago, “Hot Streaks,” February 21–May 2, 2004. (David Travis)
Paris, France, Musée d’Orsay, Réunion des musées nationaux “Alfred Stieglitz and His Circle: Modernity in New York (1905–1930),” October 18, 2004–January 16, 2005; traveled to Madrid, Spain, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, February 10–May 17, 2005.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Photography on Display: Modern Treasures,” May 9–September 13, 2009.
Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 10 Permanent Collection Rotation, November 3, 2012–May 6, 2013.
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Field Guide to Photography and Media,” Nov. 10, 2022–Apr. 10, 2023.
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