The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 16, 2024
Equivalent
1926
(American, 1864–1946)
Image: 11.9 x 9.2 cm (4 11/16 x 3 5/8 in.); Matted: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.)
Location: not on view
Description
Between 1922 and 1931, Stieglitz worked on a series of extraordinary photographs of the sun and clouds that he called “equivalents.” Each one has its own distinctive forms, tones, light and shadow patterns, and symbolism. In this visually engaging, unmanipulated contact print—rich in light and dark patterns—he transformed observable information into abstracted forms. He eliminated all expected references to reality often found in landscape photography, creating a sense of disorientation. The image offers no internal evidence to locate the work in a time or place, as all indications of ground or horizon have been banished. Stripped of their functional properties and traditional associations as pictorial elements in a landscape, the clouds become abstract configurations that Stieglitz saw as equivalents of emotional tension and spiritual conflict, representing his internal feelings in flux.- Private collection, New York
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 331
- Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24-September 16, 2007).The Cleveland Museum of Art (6/24/07 - 9/16/07); "Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art", no exhibition catalogue.CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: "Legacy of Light: Seven Masters in Depth."Legacy of Light: Seven Masters in Depth. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 20-February 2, 1996).Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 8, 1991).CMA, June 7 - September 8, 1991: "Object Lessons: Cleveland Creates an Art Museum."The Year in Review for 1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-May 14, 1989).CMA, March 1 - May 14, 1989: "Year in Review 1988," CMA Bulletin, 76 (February 1989), p. 71, no. 107, repr. p. 64.
- {{cite web|title=Equivalent|url=false|author=Alfred Stieglitz|year=1926|access-date=16 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1988.39