Tower
Peter Stackpole, American, 1913 - 1997
1935
Gelatin silver print
Overall: 6 1/2 × 4 5/16 in. (16.5 × 11 cm)
Mount: 14 × 11 in. (35.6 × 27.9 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Elizabeth and David C. Lowenstein ’67 Fund and the Fund for Contemporary Photography
© Estate of Peter Stackpole
2016.30.7
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed and dated, in graphite, on mount below image lower right: Peter Stackpole 1934 [published as 1935 in an online ad for Barry Singer Gallery (http://www.singergallery.com, retrieved 8/18/ 2016)
Label
Geometry dominates Stackpole’s composition, deliberately evoking the combination of math and science that allowed for the development of the modern city. The abstract quality of his image relates directly to the work of arstists, such as Preston Dickson (on the opposite wall), who likewise conveyed enthusiasm for the modern city through their work. Stackpole shows a rising tower behind angles created by the steel crane and supports in the foreground, paying homage to the act of construction—not the monument, but the process.
This was a theme common to Henry Luce publications in the early 1930s (such as Fortune and Time magazines). Stackpole’s mastery of the “machine-age” style earned him a job at the nascent LIFE magazine, where he and three other photographers began working before the magazine released its first issue in 1936. The appeal of such images lay in the notion that humans could overcome the power of nature through engineering and planning.
From the 2019 exhibition Cubism and Its Aftershocks, curated by John R. Stomberg Ph.D, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director
Exhibition History
Citrin Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 24-November 17, 2019.
Provenance
Seth Bunnell, Tomales, California; sold to present collection, 2016.
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