Martha Graham: American Document (trio)

Artist Barbara Morgan (American, 1900 - 1992)

Date1938

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage and sheet: 15 1/8 × 19 7/16 inches (38.42 × 49.37 cm)
Mount: 30 × 24 inches (76.2 × 60.96 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.4103

SignedSigned on mount recto, lower right, in pencil: "Barbara Morgan - 1938 -"; Signed on mount verso, center, in blue pen: "Barbara Morgan"

InscribedOn mount recto, lower left, in pencil: "Martha Graham - American Document - (trio)"; On mount verso, center, in blue pen: "Martha Graham - AMERICAN DOCUMENT - 1938 (Trio)"

MarkingsOn mount verso, lower left corner, in pencil: "12".

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionMultiple exposure of a woman (Martha Graham) dancing in dark colored dress.
Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Rotation 5. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 15 – July 9, 2009, no cat.

Gallery Label

In her celebrated series featuring the dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, Barbara Morgan conveys the complexity of movement by working with multiple exposures. The overlapping of solid and translucent figures is the result of exposing several images on a single negative. This multiplication evokes the unique dynamism of Graham’s haunting choreography. Morgan’s photograph also gives visual form to the poetic narration that accompanied the dance: “We are three women; we are three million women. We are the mothers of the hungry dead; we are the mothers of the hungry living.”

Provenance

Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, NY;
Purchased from Howard Greenberg Gallery by Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO, 1993;
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.

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