The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

Ella Bergmann-Michel

Ella Bergmann-Michel

1950
(American, 1899–1998)
Image: 22.8 x 16.1 cm (9 x 6 5/16 in.); Mounted: 43.5 x 35.9 cm (17 1/8 x 14 1/8 in.); Paper: 22.8 x 16.1 cm (9 x 6 5/16 in.)
© Estate of Ilse Bing
Location: not on view

Description

Shortly after Ilse Bing decided to become a photographer, she met artist, photographer, and filmmaker Ella Bergmann-Michel (1896–1971). When this portrait was made, they had been friends for two decades. An important role model for women artists in post–World War I Germany, Bergmann-Michel shared with Bing an aesthetic approach: creating abstractions that were rooted in reality. As Bing explained, their work stood out from other nonrepresentational artists because it was “based on ongoing life in even the most abstract pictures.”
  • Ilse Bing: Queen of the Leica. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 7-October 11, 2020).
  • {{cite web|title=Ella Bergmann-Michel|url=false|author=Ilse Bing|year=1950|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2012.397