BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (Archives of American Art) -- Exhibit: Little Pictures, Big Lives

DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (Archives of American Art) -- Exhibit: Little Pictures, Big Lives:

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Description of Pictures: Little Pictures, Big Lives: Snapshots from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art
July 1, 2011 – October 3, 2011

Some 150 images of celebrated and famous artists offer clues to the intimate side of public personae: to the people and the things they cared about, where they’ve been, what they did, and with whom. The images were taken primarily during the golden age of snapshot photography, the 1920s through the 1960s.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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[4] SIPGBL_110704_012.JPG	[5] SIPGBL_110704_019.JPG	[6] SIPGBL_110704_026.JPG
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[10] SIPGBL_110704_044.JPG	[11] SIPGBL_110704_052.JPG	[12] SIPGBL_110704_056.JPG
[13] SIPGBL_110704_062.JPG	[14] SIPGBL_110704_071.JPG	[15] SIPGBL_110704_078.JPG
[16] SIPGBL_110704_084.JPG	[17] SIPGBL_110704_090.JPG	[18] SIPGBL_110704_096.JPG
[19] SIPGBL_110704_098.JPG	[20] SIPGBL_110704_107.JPG	[21] SIPGBL_110704_111.JPG
[22] SIPGBL_110704_114.JPG	[23] SIPGBL_110704_120.JPG	[24] SIPGBL_110704_126.JPG
[25] SIPGBL_110704_134.JPG	[26] SIPGBL_110704_139.JPG	[27] SIPGBL_110704_144.JPG
[28] SIPGBL_110704_149.JPG	[29] SIPGBL_110704_153.JPG	[30] SIPGBL_110704_157.JPG
[31] SIPGBL_110704_160.JPG	[32] SIPGBL_110704_166.JPG	[33] SIPGBL_110704_173.JPG
[34] SIPGBL_110704_180.JPG	[35] SIPGBL_110704_193.JPG	[36] SIPGBL_110704_197.JPG
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIPGBL_110704_001.JPG: Little Pictures Big Lives: Snapshots from the Archives of American Art July 1, 2011 - October 3, 2011 Exhibited in Washington, D.C. at the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery Snapshots -- thousands of them -- are tucked away among the letters, documents, and diaries of artists in the Archives of American Art. These little pictures give us a view into the intimate lives of "larger than life" people. Most of these images date from the golden age of snapshot photography -- the 1920s through the 1960s -- when cameras first became widely owned and used to document all kinds of occasions, both public and private. In today's digital age of point–and–shoot, instant playback, and Photoshop, snapshots evoke an earlier era of photography, when there was a charm in capturing even the simplest of scenes. Capturing the authentic and the incidental, snapshots provide an intimate look into artists' lives -- who they knew, who they loved, where they worked, where they went, and, perhaps most importantly, the little moments that made their lives rich and full. -- Merry Foresta, Guest Curator
2. SIPGBL_110704_004.JPG: Play Amateur photographers took their cameras everywhere and photographed everything, creating an almost stream-of-consciousness record of their lives. Snapshots provide us rare glimpses of what artists did in the privacy of their homes and how they played when they were away. Through snapshots the lives of artists become available to us. For a moment, we feel connected to these people and to their lives, which are not so different than ours.
3. SIPGBL_110704_006.JPG: Alexander Calder wrangling toy bulls, 1927
4. SIPGBL_110704_012.JPG: Gathering at architect Marcel Breuer's house, New Canaan, Connecticut, ca 1947. Alexander Calder stands in back.
5. SIPGBL_110704_019.JPG: Artists and architects at a restaurant, ca 1950: Alexander Calder (far right, thumbing nose), architect Marcel Breuer (fourth from right).
6. SIPGBL_110704_026.JPG: Architect Walter Gropius's 80th birthday party, 1963
7. SIPGBL_110704_034.JPG: Painter Gertrude Abercrombie (with jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie on his birthday, October 21, 1964).
8. SIPGBL_110704_042.JPG: Work: Good snapshots are combinations of good intentions, good luck, and willing subjects. Snapshots of artists offer us the visual material out of which we can build the personal histories of artistic lives. The unguarded moments captured by snapshots of artists at work in their studios, outdoors at their easels, teaching classes, attending gallery openings, give us a real, if brief, look at artistic process.
9. SIPGBL_110704_044.JPG: George Ault painting at forest's edge, ca 1920
10. SIPGBL_110704_052.JPG: Rockwell Kent painting in the snow, Greenland, ca 1930
11. SIPGBL_110704_056.JPG: Una Hanbury sculpting a bust of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1967
12. SIPGBL_110704_062.JPG: NC Wyeth in his Delaware studio with painter Allen Tupper True modeling as a cowboy, ca 1905
13. SIPGBL_110704_071.JPG: Grant Wood painting an ice wagon, Stone City, Iowa, ca 1933
14. SIPGBL_110704_078.JPG: Jasper Johns in his studio, 1963
15. SIPGBL_110704_084.JPG: Rockwell Kent taking photographs in Greenland, ca 1930
16. SIPGBL_110704_090.JPG: Rockwell and Frances Kent in Greenland, ca 1930. After several yearlong stays in Greenland, Kent published an illustrated memoir about the island.
17. SIPGBL_110704_114.JPG: Art critic Aline Saarinen and architect Eero Saarinen on a boat, ca 1955
18. SIPGBL_110704_120.JPG: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in Coyoacan, Mexico, ca 1945
19. SIPGBL_110704_126.JPG: Pablo Picasso and his daughter Maya Picasso, ca 1944
20. SIPGBL_110704_134.JPG: Jackson Pollock with his dogs, ca 1955
21. SIPGBL_110704_139.JPG: Alexander Calder and Agnes Rindge Claflin, director of Vassar Art Gallery, in Calder's studio, ca 1942.
22. SIPGBL_110704_144.JPG: Family and Friends: The personal snapshots of abstract expressionist painters Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner further expand the public image of artists who already stand out as larger than life. These snapshots of art world celebrities Jackson and Lee relaxing on the beach in Southampton, in the studio with the dogs, or posing together with family, provide revealing behind-the-scenes glimpses of the sort we now expect of all celebrities, whether artists or not. Art critic, curator, and writer Bruce D. Kurtz explored the complex intersection of high art and popular culture. He began his career in 1966 as an artist, but he became widely known as a critic, writing about a new generation of conceptual, video, and abstract artists. The many Polaroids of his friends -- artists, curators, and critics -- made at parties and gallery openings provide a lively look at the art scene of New York and Los Angeles during the late 1960s and 1970s.
23. SIPGBL_110704_149.JPG: Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner at the beach, ca 1945-1955 Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner: The personal snapshots of abstract expressionist painters Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) and Lee Krasner (1908-1984) further expand the public image of artists who already stand out as larger than life. These snapshots of art world celebrities Jackson and Lee relaxing on the beach in Southampton, in the studio with the dogs, or posing together with family, provide revealing behind-the-scenes glimpses of the sort we now expect of all celebrities, whether artists or not.
24. SIPGBL_110704_153.JPG: Pollock posing with animal bones, ca 1955
25. SIPGBL_110704_157.JPG: Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner
26. SIPGBL_110704_160.JPG: Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner
27. SIPGBL_110704_166.JPG: Pollock family reunion, 1950
28. SIPGBL_110704_173.JPG: Jackson Pollock as a boy feeding ducks, ca 1914
29. SIPGBL_110704_180.JPG: Jackson Pollock and his brother Charles, New York, 1930
30. SIPGBL_110704_193.JPG: Rockwell Kent standing on his head, ca 1935
31. SIPGBL_110704_197.JPG: Ansel Adams, Photographer, 1936
32. SIPGBL_110704_204.JPG: Yoko Ono, John Lennon, and Andy Warhol, June 5, 1971
33. SIPGBL_110704_211.JPG: Every photograph marks an instant in time. It both confirms and recalls the reality of that moment. It declares on behalf of both photographer and subject, "I was here!" Whether snapshots are made to capture private times, show-off moments, or some newly invented version of ourselves, the pictures are illustrations of moments that take on greater importance for having been saved by the camera. Art dealer Colin de Land invited anyone who visited his American Fine Arts gallery in New York to pick up one of the point-and-shoot cameras that were always on hand. The result was a continuous stream of snapshots documenting the day-to-day details of gallery life: installations, parties, gallery-goers, back-room hanging out. The pictures continued outside the gallery, too. De Land and his wife, art dealer Pat Hearn, made photographs constantly, creating a unique visual diary of their personal and public lives.
34. SIPGBL_110704_214.JPG: Dennis Oppenheim, sculptor and conceptual artist, November 29, 1975 Bruce D Kurtz Art critic, curator, and writer Bruce D. Kurtz (1943-2003) explored the complex intersection of high art and popular culture. He began his career in 1966 as an artist, but he became widely known as a critic, writing about a new generation of conceptual, video, and abstract artists. The many Polaroids of his friends -- artists, curators, and critics -- made at parties and gallery openings provide a lively look at the art scene of New York and Los Angeles during the late 1960s and 1970s.
35. SIPGBL_110704_231.JPG: Andy Warhol (in glasses) and friends, Fire Island Beach, New York, ca 1949 Philip Pearlstein: Like his friend Andy Warhol, painter Philip Pearlstein (b 1924) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology. In 1949, Warhol and Pearlstein moved to Manhattan and rented an eighth-floor walkup tenement apartment on St. Mark's Place for the summer. Pearlstein's snapshots from that time suggest an era of youthful fun and friendship.
36. SIPGBL_110704_244.JPG: Warhol in New York City, ca 1949
37. SIPGBL_110704_249.JPG: Andy Warhol on the grass, with Philip Pearlstein and Dorothy Cantor (Pearlstein's future wife), Carnegie Institute, ca 1948.
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