The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
Barn Abstraction
c. 1939
(American, 1906–1978)
Image: 12.5 x 22.4 cm (4 15/16 x 8 13/16 in.); Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.)
Jo Hershey Selden Fund 1997.241
© Estate of Ralston Crawford / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Location: not on view
Description
Both of these images explore the relationship between the three- and two-dimensional worlds and, while remaining representational, emphasize each building’s abstract qualities. Best known as a painter, but also a draftsman, printmaker, filmmaker, and photographer. Crawford focused on the rural architecture of Pennsylvania and Delaware in the mid-1930s. The 18th-century adobe church of San Francisco de Assisi in Rancho de Taos, New Mexico, was an icon of pure form for modernist artists from Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams to Paul Strand, who spent summers in Taos from 1930 to 1932. Ansel Adams also chose this view of the back with its sculptural buttresses, stating that “it is the rear elevation that defines this building as one of the great architectural monuments of America.”- From Riches to Rags: American Photography in the Depression. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 13-December 31, 2017).
- {{cite web|title=Barn Abstraction|url=false|author=Ralston Crawford|year=c. 1939|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1997.241