Artwork Page for Agave Design I

Details / Information for Agave Design I

Agave Design I

1920s

Imogen Cunningham

(American, 1883–1976)
Culture
America
Medium
gelatin silver print
Measurements
Image: 34.8 x 27 cm (13 11/16 x 10 5/8 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.)
Credit Line
The A. W. Ellenberger, Sr., Endowment Fund 1985.47
Copyright
© The Imogen Cunningham Trust
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print

Description

After Cunningham closed a successful portrait studio to devote herself to parenting her three sons, she continued photographing. “Because I couldn’t get out anywhere, and I had a garden,” said Cunningham, she photographed her plants every afternoon when her children were napping. These were not picture-postcard views but extreme close-ups of plants that emphasize light and dark contrasts, detail, form, and pattern. Like this iconic image, they were unmanipulated depictions of flora, yet, at the same time, boldly abstract images. Cunningham helped blaze a trail for the recognition of photography as an art form that could go beyond documentation to explore pure expression and visual experimentation.

Agave Design I

1920s

Imogen Cunningham

(American, 1883–1976)
America

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