About this Item
Original vintage gelatin silver print, negative ca. 1940-50, printed probably by 1951. 39 x 45.2 cm (15-3/8 x 17-3/4 in.), flush-mounted to art board. Titled and annotated in pencil on the verso, with the artist's hand stamp and "Barbara Morgan - Lensgroup - 424 Madison Avenue" stamp (twice). In very good condition, pinprick tack holes at extreme edges, a few generally negligible scuffs and scratches on the print surface, residues of archival hinging tape center edges verso, with a polished mahogany frame 23-3/4 x 26 x 1-1/2 in. After the publication of Summer's Children in 1951, the New York Public Library mounted an exhibition the next year of a selection of its photographs with varied panel layouts (Morgan, Aperture, op. cit., p. [40]). George Eastman House in Rochester followed in 1955 with an exhibition featuring "enlargements with pictorial mobiles" (ibid.), and the Kodak Photographic Information Center at Grand Central Terminal in New York City held yet another significant showing in 1956. The present print was possibly Morgan's studio copy (with tack holes and lacking her usual signature on a print made for others), and it may relate to these exhibitions, as the penciled annotations on the verso include what may be exhibition numbers and, after the title, the words "(See dup. mural)." Notwithstanding these prominent exhibitions, Morgan's book, lauded for her design, remained her preferred presentation. The page of the book (captioned lower right "EVENING BARN CHORES") on which this image appears exemplifies her juxtapositions. The present image, occupying the principal space of the page upper right, is balanced and reinforced by the right-hand fragment of another image bleeding into the upper left gutter and the detail of a third image cropped into a parallelogram bleeding into the bottom left corner and bottom edge. Berenice Abbot's review in American Photography observed (op. cit., p. 679): "The creative layout simply fulfills and extends the meaning of the photographs. It derives from the rhythm and mood of the pictures themselves. The variety of each double spread does not destroy the continuity and movement of the book as a whole but builds the necessary dynamic quality, convincing testimony that this is a genuine photographic book. It is also testimony to the ability of Barbara Morgan who designed the layout, typography, jacket and format to best accommodate her pictures. This live sense of structure is organic and lets the full statement of the photographs come through to the spectator - which is all that cropping and layout are supposed to accomplish." Published: Morgan, Barbara Brooks, Summer's Children: A Photographic Cycle of Art at Camp, Scarsdale, New York: Morgan & Morgan, 1951, p. 74. References: Abbot, Berenice, "Summer's Children New, Refreshing, Affirmative," American Photography (Minneapolis: American Photographic Publishing Company), vol. 45 (November 1951), pp. 678-79. Knappe, Brett, "Barbara Morgan's Photographic Interpretation of American Culture, 1935-1980," doctoral dissertation, Kress Foundation Department of the History of Art and the Faculty of the Graduate School, University of Kansas, 2008. Morgan, Barbara, "Barbara Morgan," Aperture (Rochester: Aperture, Inc.), vol. 11, no. 1 (1964). Provenance: with James Danziger Gallery, New York City (exhibition: Barbara Morgan: A Retrospective, February and March 1999). Seller Inventory # ABE-1505844314764
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