Exhibition Brochure | Brochure Images | Related Information
Introduction | 291 Gallery | Anderson Galleries and Intimate Gallery | An American Place
An American Place
In the fall of 1929 Stieglitz opened An American Place on the seventeenth floor
of a building at 509 Madison Avenue in New York. Continuing the tradition established
at the Intimate Gallery, each year until his death in 1946 Stieglitz presented
monographic shows, almost always of his three "core" artists--Dove, Marin, and
O'Keeffe--interspersed with exhibitions of works by Demuth, Hartley, Strand,
and occasional shows of his own photographs. Yet with the onset of the Depression,
and the political and economic upheaval it created, the strong sense of community
that had characterized the years of the Anderson Galleries and the Intimate
Gallery dissipated and An American Place began to feel less like a communal
meeting place than a sanctuary. As each of these artists turned inward, they
created their most mature art. All of them refined their techniques and purified
their compositions, looking for strong simple iconic forms as in Demuth's My
Egypt and Dove's That
Red One. With their direct, frontal presentations of monolithic structures,
bathed in a crystalline light, their work acquired spiritual overtones. Their
purpose was not just to present an American vista but to suggest something more universal: Demuth's Egypt was the industrial landscape of his home
in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, whereas for Dove the essence of life was found in
the humble structures of Long Island Sound; O'Keeffe, Strand, Marin, Hartley,
and Stieglitz found the universal in the desert of the Southwest, the rugged
coast of Maine, or the skyscrapers of New York.
To a great extent, Stieglitz was responsible for this flowering of American art. For more than thirty years he had orchestrated one of the most influential dialogues ever created in American art and culture. All "Seven Americans" drew profound support from the community that he had fostered and deep inspiration from his own art. The vision of a photographer had liberated, enlightened, nurtured, and perhaps ultimately defined their world.
Brochure written by Sarah Greenough, curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art.
Introduction | 291 Gallery | Anderson Galleries and Intimate Gallery | An American Place