Magnolia Blossom

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Magnolia Blossom

United States, 1925
Photographs
Gelatin silver print
Image: 9 3/16 × 11 5/8 in. (23.3 × 29.5 cm) Primary support: 10 7/8 × 13 7/8 in. (27.6 × 35.2 cm) Mat: 20 × 24 in. (50.8 × 60.96 cm)
The Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, gift of The Annenberg Foundation and Carol Vernon and Robert Turbin (M.2008.40.599)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

"Nature as art," both as a pure experience of nature and as a study in pure design, is embodied in this picture by photographer Imogen Cunningham....
"Nature as art," both as a pure experience of nature and as a study in pure design, is embodied in this picture by photographer Imogen Cunningham. The close, tightly cropped composition serves to enhance the intimacy of being enfolded within the magnolia petals. The work also turns our focus inward—as a study in form, tone, and texture. Cunningham was part of an important group of West Coast photographers who shifted from a soft-focus style to a sharp-focus, abstract sensibility known as modernism.
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Bibliography

  • Gifts on the Occasion of LACMA's 50th Anniversary. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2015.
  • Benson, Timothy O. Hans Richter: Encounters. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2013.
  • Gifts on the Occasion of LACMA's 50th Anniversary. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2015.
  • Benson, Timothy O. Hans Richter: Encounters. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2013.
  • Salvesen, Britt. See the Light: Photography, Perception, Cognition: the Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2013.
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