Photo Synthesis
The Whitney brings together works of photographer (and horticulturalist)
Edw ard Steichen from the many different phases of his career.
By Paul Makovsky
When Barbara Haskell, curator of pre-war art at the
Whitney Museum in New Yo rk, went about organizing the first retrospective of
photographer Edward Ste ichen's work in 40 years, she was faced with a daunting
task. Steichen (1879 -1973) was known for the dreamlike, soft-focus
pictorialism of his late-nine teenth-century work, as well as for the
sharp-contrast style of his twentiet h-century photographs; he was both the
highest-paid photographer in America (working for magazines like Vogue and
Vanity Fair) and the only horticulturi st ever to get an exhibition of live
plants into the Museum of Modern Art. L ater, as director of MoMA's photography
department, he curated "The Family of Man," which became the most popular
photography exhibition in the museum's history and eventually a best-selling
book.
Haskell has
met the challenge by assembling nearly 200 of Steichen's works,
bringing together his celebrated images of New York; his elegant
portraits o f film stars such as Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, and
Marlene Dietrich; his rarely seen paintings and textile designs;
and his advertising and fashion photography. According to Haskell,
Steichen's commercial and curatorial work s weren't so disparate.
"Steichen had been doing these wonderful advertiseme nts of American
products that elevated everyday things like Douglas lighters to
an iconic status," she explains. "He made a simple, everyday object
beau tifully isolated from its context." Paul Makovsky "Edward Steichen"
is on exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York
from October 5, 2000 to February 4, 2001. |
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