The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
Electric Back
1949
(American, 1896–1984)
Image: 34.2 x 26.8 cm (13 7/16 x 10 9/16 in.); Paper: 35.4 x 27.9 cm (13 15/16 x 11 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2007.145
© Joseph Breitenbach Trust
Location: not on view
Description
Fleeing Germany in 1933, Breitenbach moved to Paris where he joined Surrealist circles. Although he never referred to himself as a Surrealist, he shared their aesthetic concerns and favored techniques including montage, solarization, and the photogram, all of which are employed in Electric Back. Emigrating to New York in 1942, Breitenbach applied Surrealist techniques to commercial assignments such as Electric Back, one of a group of montages made to illustrate a McCall’s Magazine story. The llustration shows how the pituitary gland, located at the base of the brain, stimulates the adrenal glands to fight disease. A different image from the series was published.- (Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, NY)(Hirschl and Adler Gallery, New York, NY)David Raymond [b.1979], New York, NY2007-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E. Hinson, Ian Walker, and Lisa Kurzner. Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography : the David Raymond Collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art. 2014. cat. no. 126, p. 175
- Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 19, 2014-January 11, 2015).
- {{cite web|title=Electric Back|url=false|author=Josef Breitenbach|year=1949|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2007.145