Displaying items by tag: paul strand

Nine photographs by Paul Strand (1890-1976), one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century, have been acquired by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, where they have gone on public display until September 20. Taken from Strand’s series of Hebridean photographs from South Uist in 1954, the works are the first examples of his Scottish work to enter into a public collection in Scotland.

This major acquisition, supported by the Art Fund, is composed of nine vintage black and white portraits of Scottish lives and landscapes in South Uist, an island in the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland.

Since October, area museums have been resurrecting artists.

Paul Strand was revitalized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art; William Glackens came to life at the Barnes Foundation.

Now the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is featuring Peter Blume (1906-1992), the subject of a fascinating retrospective of 56 paintings and 103 drawings that will remain on view in the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building through April 5. An abridged version of the show will travel to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, where it will be seen from July 5 to Sept. 20.

In photographic wanderings around New York City, Paul Strand sometimes used a fake lens so his subjects wouldn’t know their pictures were being taken.

Partly by this means, he brought greater spontaneity and realism into the photographer’s worldview circa World War I, leading an art form that had recently imitated painting into the modern age on its own terms.

Until his death in 1976, Strand, whom the Philadelphia Museum of Art regards as “one of the greatest photographers in the history of the medium,” produced work infused with left-of-center social views and curiosity about people and localities all over the globe.

On March 4, 2013 the Philadelphia Museum of Art announced a number of important acquisitions that will enhance the institution’s European, Latin, and American art collections. The gifts came from various donors including collectors Roberta and Richard Huber, global healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline, and several Museum Trustees.

Among the recent acquisitions is Amaryllis Josephine, a double-page watercolor on vellum by Belgian painter and botanist Pierre Joseph Redouté (1759-1840). A pencil drawing of the flower’s bulb accompanies the watercolor. Both of the works were created as part of a series of engravings made under the patronage of the empress Joséphine, Napoleon Bonaparte’s first wife.

The museum also received four 18^th century paintings that are currently on view as part of the exhibition Journeys to New Worlds: Spanish and Portuguese Colonial Art from the Roberta and Richard Huber Collection (on view through May 19, 2013). The works include King Luis I of Spain on Horseback (unknown artist, Peru); Saint Anthony of Padua Preaching Before Pope Gregory IX (unknown artist Peru); The House at Nazareth (unknown artist, Bolivia); and Our Lady of the Reedbed or Irún with Donor, Captain Joaquín Elorrieta by Ecuadorian artist José Cortés de Alcocer.    

Other acquisitions include 236 photographs by pioneering modern photographer Paul Strand (1890-1976); N.C. Wyeth’s (1890-1976) Trial of the Bow, the first painting to enter the museum’s collection by the artist; and an early 20^th century stained glass and bronze chandelier by Tiffany Studios under the artistic direction of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933).

The Philadelphia Museum of Art will hold an exhibition of its recent acquisitions this summer.