The Alfred Stieglitz Collection at the AIC

Reviewed by Kenneth Tanaka

As anyone who has studied any art or photography history probably knows, Alfred Stieglitz was perhaps the most prominent early figure in getting photography admitted into the world of art. As a somewhat elitist, self-anointed connoisseur and relentless promoter of photography (and other modernist works) Stieglitz became point-man for the medium in the influential American East coast art world.

What you may not know about Stieglitz is that he also became a major art collector. By his death in 1946 he and his wife, the renowned American artist Georgia O’Keeffe, had amassed a collection of photographs, paintings, and sculptures so large that no single public institution could absorb its totality. It was left to O’Keefe to organize and allocate segments of the collection to various public and academic museums throughout America. In 1949, as one of 13 institutions to receive collection allocations, the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) acquired over 400 works from the collection, 244 of which were photographs (159 by Stieglitz). It was a transformative event for the museum’s then-budding photography collection. Many of these pieces have since been among the museum’s most viewed and exhibited photographs.

Fast forward to 2016. Thanks to grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation, the AIC’s Department of Photography was able to undertake a very ambitious project to fully digitize the 244 photographic works in the museum’s Stieglitz Collection. This was a far more extensive effort than simply putting images onto a website. In addition to full conservation analysis reports, each object’s research would be updated and centralized along with condition reports. The end result of this work was to be not only extensive object documentation on this collection but also an organized, easily-approachable presentation of this information freely available to the general public anywhere in the world.

And that’s exactly what the project team delivered. Recto and verso views of each object, mounted and unmounted, are just the start. Full conservation analysis reports, object research, exhibition histories and cross-references with other collections are presented for each object. It was a stunningly successful deep digitization project, among the best that any art museum has ever produced. A tremendous resource that serves scholars as well as high school paper-writers and hobbyists.

I think most TOP readers will find the AIC’s new Stieglitz Collection module an interesting place for any of three reasons. First, it documents some of the most significant works of photography’s early modern history. Second, it’s interesting to see what Stieglitz collected beyond his own stuff. Third, and most importantly, the module gives the public a glimpse at what museums really do. The world’s great museums are actually bastions of scholarly research, only necessarily dressed as showrooms. Deep in their bowels, behind and below the galleries, are armies of rarely-seen curators, conservators, educators, etc. devoted to preserving and plumbing the mysteries of their collections. So the depth and breadth of object information shown in this module is not really extraordinary for a museum to have. What is extraordinary is to see it so neatly gathered and exposed to the general public. Even as museums gradually open some of their collections for free viewing on the Internet, such depth of presentation is, and may remain, relatively rare.

So make a pot of coffee on a cold, wet afternoon and explore the Alfred Steiglitz Collection of Photographs at the Art Institute of Chicago!

Ken

©2017 by Kenneth Tanaka, all rights reserved

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Mike adds: This might shed a little light on how that collection got to be so large. Here's Georgia O'Keefe talking about Alfred Stieglitz, transcribed from the 1977 PBS documentary "Georgia O'Keefe." Remember, as you read this—Stieglitz was an art dealer! Makes me laugh.

Miss O'Keefe: I was interested in what he did and he was interested in what I did. Very interested. So much that his favorite word was ‘no’ as I told you before.

Interviewer: To whom?

To anyone who wanted anything.

Oh really?

Oh, certainly. He didn’t want people to have anything. He wanted to keep it all. He liked it and he didn’t want to sell it.

But didn’t he try to sell the…the paintings…

He never tried to sell a painting. He tried to keep people from buying. And if I had had any particular feeling about money we would have been fighting all the time, but I didn’t care. He’d come home and tell me how somebody came in and wanted a particular painting and he didn’t let them have it. And this would go on, maybe, till, along in April, and I’d say, ‘well, Alfred, you know it’d be nice if I made my living this year’ [laughs].

Well he liked what I did like I liked what he did. That’s how we got along at all.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Peter Wright: "It's certainly a wonderful collection, and the AIC is to be commended for making it available in this way. One thing in particular that struck me in looking through these pictures was how very different my response was to each of them. The city pictures like 'Terminal' and 'Steerage' have a major resonance for me, likewise most of the portraits, but the tree pictures and the clouds leave me pretty cold. It is interesting (for me) to reflect on why that is and what it means for any work I might do. As always, art tells us much about ourselves if we let it."

Jack: "OMG. This is a treasure trove. Now I'll get nothing done for the next six months. Thanks a lot! No, I really mean it—thanks. A lot."

Comments

[brad]

Hi Ken;

Check out the attached..

http://www.santafeindependentfilmfestival.com/Detailed/591.html

[Keith]

Oh great, something else to consume hours of face time in front of a monitor. I see I'll get nothing much accomplished this coming weekend. Actually this is fantastic, as it provides a tremendous resource to those in remote areas without the means or time to travel to far away large metropolitan areas that host these well respected museums an opportunity to view what they otherwise could not. It in effect helps transition higher education from an elitist state to a democratic one. I look forward to reading about this collection. Thanks to Kenneth and Mike for something much more than the common link-bait on many photo websites.

[Dave Kosiur]

An excellent book on Stieglitz and his galleries is "Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries", published by the National Gallery of Art and Bulfinch Press in 2000. An great reference, with 610 jam-packed pages! I got mine as a remainder -- what a bargain!

[John Camp]

The National Endowment for the Humanities, which helped pay for this project is, I believe, once of the institutions on the new Administration's chopping block as a waste of money.

[Joseph]

Georgia O'Keeffe retrospective at Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto
April 22, 2017 – July 30, 2017

http://www.ago.net/art-gallery-of-ontario-partners-with-tate-modern-to-present-georgia-okeeffe-retrospective-in-summer-2017

[Andre Y]

Both Ken's comments on the real role of a museum, as well as the digital output of the AIC puts this recent article on the Met museum's travails in context and shows how big a mess the Met has become: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/thomas-campbell-met-director-exit

Stieglitz's art hoarding also reminds me of my local furniture dealer who loved early and mid-20th century modern designs, and went into business so he could have a reason to buy all of these objects he loved. He'd be similarly picky about whom he'd allow to buy something out of his collection too.

[JOHN GILLOOLY]

Love this post! This is a great model for archiving done well. Thanks Ken!

[Luke Smith]

Holy moly!
This could take days. Weeks.
Thank you.

[John Ironside]

The Georgia O'Keefe show was terrific in London. I believe it was the most comprehensive show of her work there's ever been.
And at Tate Modern, I found the audio guide made a big contribution to my understanding of the context, the people, the places and the pictures.

[David Zivic]

It seems to me that I heard that the Getty Foundation (nothing to do with Getty Images) earns 80 million dollars in interest every year on the interest earned on its money. They are required to spend that 80 mil on art or the money is disbursed elsewhere. The went around and bought up vast photo collections of prints and negatives and stored them into their archives.
A lot of them never get to see be seen on display.

[Nick D]

As flagged up by Joseph, I can highly recommend the Georgia O' Keeffe retrospective, which I saw at Tate Modern in London. It includes some contemporary photography too.

[Per]

If I could keep just one photography book it would probably Taschen's "Alfred Stieglitz: Camera Work. The Complete Photographs". What the man did with that publication was incredible.

[John Shriver]

I saw the exhibit in person last year, quite amazing. Art Institute of Chicago is very much worth a visit. Too much to see in one day.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Addenda:

- One point I inferred but did not explicitly make is that a rummage through this collection module is as close as most people will ever get to rummaging through the actual boxes of objects in a museum's vaults. Really. And you don't have to don gloves, take any art handling training, pass a security gauntlet, or even make an appointment to get the experience!

- For those interested in learning (a lot) more about the relationship between Georgia O'Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz I recommend "My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz: Volume One, 1915-1933" by Sarah Greenough. This is an extensive collection of letters between Stieglitz and O'Keefe, many -very- intimate. The work took Greenough many, many years to assemble.

- @John Camp: "The National Endowment for the Humanities, which helped pay for this project is, I believe, once of the institutions on the new Administration's chopping block as a waste of money."

Indeed the NEH is on the "chopping block", John, as is its sister institution the National Endowment for the Arts. Regardless of politics, these are two of America's most important and efficient public cultural catalysts. Their combined annual budgets represent little more than round-off error compared to, say, our defense budget. These are the proverbial noses that would be jettisoned to save the face.

[What I've heard is that the entire arts budget of the government is less than we spend on military BANDS. Just the bands. Maybe people will join me in my campaign to abolish the military bands and leave the arts alone. --Mike]