Explore the work of photography greats Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Paul Caponigro and others, all drawn from the private collection of Dr. David Dennard, now on view in the Hunter mansion.
Dennard, an avid photographer, was inspired by the Photo-secessionists, pictorialists and especially the transcendental work of Paul Caponigro and built an impressive collection of early to late 20th century works. This exhibit considers the significance of these movements in American photography and their influence on artists today.
Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1864, and schooled as an engineer in Germany, Alfred Stieglitz returned to New York in 1890 determined to prove that photography was a medium as capable of artistic expression as painting or sculpture. As the editor of Camera Notes, the journal of the Camera Club of New York—an association of amateur photography enthusiasts—Stieglitz espoused his belief in the aesthetic potential of the medium and published work by photographers who shared his conviction.
Edward Steichen was a key figure of twentieth-century photography, directing its development as a prominent photographer and influential curator. Steichen came to the United States in 1881. He painted and worked in lithography, before undertaking photography in 1896, and first exhibited photographs at the Philadelphia Salon in 1899.
Manuel Álvarez Bravo was a teenager when he first picked up a camera and began taking pictures, before he enrolled in night classes in painting at the Academia San Carlos, in 1917, or sought instruction in the darkroom of local German photographer Hugo Brehme. Initially self-taught, Álvarez Bravo’s style developed through study of foreign and local photography journals.
Born in Boston in 1932, Paul Caponigro is one of America’s foremost landscape photographers. While he became interested in photography at age of thirteen, he also had a strong passion for music; he studied at Boston University College of Music in 1950 before deciding to focus on photography at the California School of Fine Art, where Ansel Adams had established one of the first photography programs in the United States.
Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Hunter Museum of American Art is an ArtsBuild Community Arts Partner. The Hunter is supported by grants from the Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. Learn more at www.huntermuseum.org
Image Credit: Paul Caponigro (b. 1932), Rock wall, Connecticut, 1958, gelatin silver print, 31 x 27.5 inches. Collection of David Dennard.