Cubist Design
Artist
A. Aubrey Bodine
(American, 1906 - 1970)
Dateca. 1946-1949
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 15 15/16 × 12 15/16 inches (40.46 × 32.84 cm)
Sheet: 16 7/8 × 13 13/16 inches (42.85 × 35.1 cm)
Mount: 23 7/8 × 19 7/8 inches (60.63 × 50.47 cm)
Sheet: 16 7/8 × 13 13/16 inches (42.85 × 35.1 cm)
Mount: 23 7/8 × 19 7/8 inches (60.63 × 50.47 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2018.49.2
SignedSigned on sheet recto, lower right, in black pen: "A. Aubrey Bodine"
InscribedOn sheet verso, top, in black pen: "Cubist Design-Gravalux Paper";
On mount recto, bottom, in unknown hand, in pencil: "#32.1", "A. Aubrey Bodine, Baltimore Steps".
MarkingsOn sheet verso, lower left, in pencil: "E-3";
On mount verso, upper left, in pencil: "SBG-AAB-0001-C".
On View
On viewGallery Location
- L10
Collections
DescriptionImage of repeating stairs narrowing and receding towards the bottom of the frame.Gallery LabelIn 1920, at the age of 14, A. Aubrey Bodine began working as a messenger for the Baltimore Sun newspaper. By 21, he was promoted to a staff photographer, where he remained until his retirement in 1970. Typically, photojournalists like Bodine use a straightforward, documentary photographic style. However, for this photograph first published in the Sun, he approached Baltimore’s famous white marble rowhouse steps with playful creativity, cropping and turning the composition to create an abstract, geometric pattern inspired by Cubism.
Purchased from Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, Canada by The Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2018;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2018.
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2018.
Copyright© Jennifer B. Bodine
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2017.49.2