291—Picasso-Braque Exhibition
1915
Artist, American, 1864 - 1946
Artwork overview
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Medium
platinum print
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
image: 18.5 x 23.6 cm (7 5/16 x 9 5/16 in.)
sheet: 20.1 x 25.3 cm (7 15/16 x 9 15/16 in.) -
Accession
1949.3.374
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Stieglitz Estate Number
90 A
Part of Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition
Learn more -
Key Set Number
393
Alfred Stieglitz
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Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1949.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1958
Photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, March 16–April 27, 1958
1983
Photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, February 3–May 8, 1983; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 17–August 14, 1983; The Art Institute of Chicago, October 18, 1983–January 3, 1984
2001
Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2001
2016
Intersections: Photographs and Videos from the National Gallery of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2016–2017
Bibliography
1958
Bry, Doris. Exhibition of Photographs by Alfred Stieglitz. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1958: pl. 5.
1973
Norman, Dorothy. Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer. New York, 1973: fig. 55.
1983
Greenough, Sarah, and Juan Hamilton. Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs and Writings. Washington, 1983: no. 54, pl. 23.
1994
Leavell, Linda. Marianne Moore and the Visual Arts. Baton Rouge and London, 1994: fig. 4.
2000
Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001: no. 51.
2002
Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 1, cat. 393.
2009
Grossman, Wendy. Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens. Exh. cat. The Phillips Collection, Washington, 2009.
Inscriptions
by Alfred Stieglitz, on mount, upper left verso, in graphite: 291 — / Picasso–Braque Exhibition / 1915
by Doris Bry, on mount, lower left verso, in graphite: 90 - A
Wikidata ID
Q64034886
Scholarly Remarks and Key Set Data
Outside of his photography, Alfred Stieglitz was famed for introducing modern art to America at his New York gallery, 291. The subject of this photograph is likely a temporary installation that Stieglitz, perhaps with the help of photographer Edward Steichen, put together in 1915, around the time of an exhibition of cubist works by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque at 291. In the spare, modern gallery space, we see two framed drawings by Picasso and, hanging on the wall between them, a Kota reliquary guardian figure from Gabon. The object on the pedestal is a wasps’ nest attached to a branch. 291’s signature large brass bowl sits on a table in the foreground.
Juxtaposing art and nature, as well as Western and African art, this photograph captures the issues that dominated discussion at 291. Stieglitz highlighted this conceptual dialogue by linking the disparate objects compositionally, with the curvilinear lines in Picasso’s works echoing the outline of the Kota reliquary, the wasps’ nest, and the brass bowl. Rather than merely documenting these objects, Stieglitz appropriated them and transformed them into his own work of art, showcasing with elegance and precision his talents as both photographer and gallerist.
This photograph is part of the Alfred Stieglitz Key Set, the largest, most complete, and most important collection of photographs by Stieglitz in existence. Georgia O’Keeffe gave the Key Set of 1,642 photographs to the National Gallery of Art in 1949 and 1980.