Coltrane No. 24

Artist Roy DeCarava (American, 1919 - 2009)

Date1963; printed ca. 1984

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 13 x 9 inches (33.02 x 22.86 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.3968

InscribedSignature Signed in artist's hand Front of Print

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionImage of black man playing a saxophone.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Black and White in America: Photography of the Civil Rights Era, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 19 – October 3, 2004, no cat.

Rotation 3. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 20 – August 18, 2008, no cat.

Through the Lens: Visions of African American Experience, 1950-1970. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, November 18, 2015 – April 3, 2016, no cat.

Gallery Label

Drawn initially to painting and printmaking, Roy DeCarava turned seriously to photography in 1947. His photographs powerfully unite realist and expressive concerns, presenting familiar subjects in a visceral, psychologically charged manner. Here, DeCarava uses blur and underexposure to evoke the passionate intensity of John Coltrane's music. This image reveals DeCarava's love of the lower registers of the photographic scale: the velvety beauty of rich shades of gray and black.

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