AMERICAN MUSEUMS came late to photography. Compared to the Victoria & Albert, which began collecting photography in 1852 the Met is a new kid on the block. Its first acquisition came in 1927, but only in 2005 did it become a major player via the acquisition of the famous Gilman Collection of 19th century masterpieces. At a stroke, the Met catapulted into the top rank alongside the Getty, V&A, Bradford, and Musée d'Orsay. At the same time, it inaugurated its first ever permanent space dedicated to contemporary photography. More astonishing yet is its director's avowal that, ‘In the future, our greatest efforts are likely to be focused on the post-World War II era and particularly on contemporary art.’
A new gallery was funded by Joyce Menschel, a staunch supporter of the Met's photography collection for over 20 years, and her husband Robert. It's a high ceiling white box, perfect for contemporary photography. ‘Joyce is our angel,’ says Malcolm Daniel, the photo chief. ‘She's been vital to everything we've done since 1985. She's very hands-on. She began by typing the index cards herself, then she paid for photo library staff. Without her we would be noplace!’
The Met now has 3 spaces for photography. Opposite the Menschel Hall is the Robert Wood Johnson Gallery and the smaller Gilman Gallery. All are sited at the top of the busy main staircase on the main traffic route.
‘Experts agree that the Met,
MoMA, and the Getty are the top three USA photographic collections’
Daniel admits, ‘More people discover our photography exhibitions than specifically set out to see them, and for most it's a great surprise. A quarter of a million visitors saw our last show! The collection numbers 25,000 works spanning the entire history of photography. Our treasures begin with a rare Fox Talbot album from 1839-40, just after he unveiled his invention.’
While the Met was a surprisingly late starter, luckily the first two print curators took an all-embracing view of graphic arts and allowed Alfred Stieglitz to donate 22 of his finest photographs in 1928. More arrived in 1933, and on his death in 1946, the total reached 600. Stieglitz was a passionate advocate for the acceptance of photography and without him one wonders if any works in this newfangled medium would have made it over the Met's conservative doorstep in the first half of the 20th century. For after these major acquisitions, photography languished nameless under the umbrella of 'Prints' until 1970 when, belatedly, the department was renamed 'Prints and Photographs’.
This department continued to oversee the Met's photographic holdings till 1992 when, better late than never, an independent curatorial Department of Photographs was eventually established under Maria Hambourg.
Malcolm Daniel arrived at the Met in 1990. He first studied art history and printmaking, but went on to Princeton for his PhD, initially with the idea of continuing a fascination for French 19th century painting. But when his tutor left, he made a serendipitous transfer to French photography, replacing Manet or Monet with Baldus (1813-1890) whose favourite subject matter, landscape and architecture, was captured large scale in monumental style with flawless technique.
‘Baldus was a complete discovery! I had a chance to do primary research on an artist of the first rank about whom virtually nothing was written. And I had the good fortune to transform my research into an exhibition at the Met in 1994, presenting a top notch photographer to the public for the first time. The main reaction was - how come I never heard of this guy? As a curator I find that very rewarding.’
Daniel came to the Met at a propitious time. In 1987, The Ford Motor Company donated its collection. It comprised 500 works of avant-garde European and American photography from between the two World Wars by Berenice Abbott, Brassaï, Walker Evans, André Kertész, Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, and 70 others who charted urban, technological, and social revolutions of the modern age.
This was followed seven years later by the vast Walker Evans Archive, acquired by the Met from the artist’s estate. It includes 40,000 negatives and transparencies as well as Evans’ boyhood snapshots, letters, library, and seldom-seen colour Polaroids made the year before his death, and provides a unique opportunity to study the complete creative output of this poet laureate of documentary style.
The Met's slow moving photography collection again got a tremendous boost in 1997, when it acquired the renowned Rubell Collection plus the O'Keeffe Collection. William Rubell was a young Californian who, during the 1970s, assembled 78 rare and beautifully preserved examples by each of the four major pillars of early British photography – Fox Talbot, the painter-photographer team Hill Adamson, Roger Fenton; and Julia Margaret Cameron. The Rubell Collection was well known as one of the best representations in the US of British pioneering photography and the Met was happy to get it - partly by purchase, partly a promised gift. It's worth pointing out that American museums have to raise almost all their funds from private sources, and the Met is no different.
That same year, the Stieglitz Collection was further enriched by a gift of 73 portraits of artist Georgia O’Keeffe by Stieglitz. Documenting one of the most intimate artistic collaborations of modern times, the photographs are part of Stieglitz’s extraordinary composite portrait of O’Keeffe, a series of more than 300 images produced between 1917 and 1937 that he considered to be among his greatest achievements.
Together with the Ford photographs, and the original Stieglitz holdings, these masterpieces well cover the half-century from 1895 to 1945. For Stieglitz made sure that, alongside top examples of his own work, he bequeathed the best collection anywhere of works by the Photo Secession, the circle of Pictorialist photographers shown at his influential gallery, 291, and published in Camera Work. Especially noteworthy are master prints by Paul Strand, Clarence White, Adolphe de Meyer, Gertrude Käsebier and Edward Steichen, including his iconic The Flatiron, at twilight.
During this period of expansion, the Met was actively collecting with the Gilman Paper Company Collection (recognised as the world’s finest collection of photographs in private hands) in mind. In 1993, 250 highlights from the collection had been exhibited at the Met together with a scholarly catalogue; moreover the Gilman gallery was inaugurated four years later. So hopes that the Gilman Collection would be gifted to the Met were well founded. In reality it was not so easy. Photography is now such a hot area and prices have risen astronomically. ‘We almost lost it!’ says Daniel. Only in 2005 did the Met acquire - largely a purchase - this outstanding array of over 8,500 photographs dating from 1839-1939. ‘It was by far the largest purchase our department had ever made; indeed a very major purchase in terms of the Met itself. But it was a unique chance, such a perfect fit with our collection - so it was the right thing to do,’ explains Daniel.
As photography has increasingly taken its place in the mainstream of contemporary art, the Met has devoted more space to the likes of Struth. ‘Gradually people are seeing photography as a key component of the Met. The public is more easily engaged by contemporary work, it's something they understand, but I hope they get curious about how it all started and go on to discover all those little brown photos I love so much!’
Contemporary shows featured Sugimoto in 1995, Irving Penn’s Nudes and Richard Avedon’s Portraits in 2002, and of course Struth in 2003. Recent acquisitions include works by the Bechers, Richard Prince, Nan Goldin, and Sophie Calle - all rather predictable. More noteworthy perhaps are purchases of photographs by younger folks like the Wilson twins, Rachel Harrison and Sharon Lockhart. In 2001, the department acquired the Met's first video, by Ann Hamilton, and is now adding film and new media. The Diane Arbus archive was also its most important recent acquisition.
The Met's twin strands of contemporary and 19th century are exemplified by current exhibitions. The Menschel Hall's Reflections on Photography since 1960 includes Vito Acconci, Sherrie Levine, Mapplethorpe, Thomas Ruff and Warhol plus younger artists like Mark Wyse and Janice Guy. Meanwhile Framing a Century: Master Photographs 1840-1940 is a tour de force of collection highlights from photography's first century by 13 key figures whose work the Met holds in depth.
This gives Daniel a chance to feature beautifully preserved works by Fox Talbot, Roger Fenton, Julia Margaret Cameron and Frenchmen Le Gray, Nadar and Baldus. Carleton Watkins, the consummate chronicler of the American West during the 1860s and 70s, is a less familiar name but magnificently captures wide open spaces in Oregon, Nevada and California. ‘His pictures are superb. Remember how much heavy equipment photographers had to cart around in the early days - what a challenge it was to carry and develop glass plates on site. Watkins was self-taught too!’
I asked Daniel about interdisciplinary overlaps at the Met and he agreed photography was not as well integrated in Fine Art shows as it could be. However his department will set a good example next Spring with The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984. This includes photography, painting, sculpture, prints, drawings, film, video, and installation - 140 works from New York artists like Cindy Sherman, Louise Lawler, James Casebere, Allan McCollum, plus works in other media by Robert Longo, David Salle, Matt Mullican and Jack Goldstein.
It's unquestionable that while the Met photo collection is not as extensive as some, it’s of an extremely high quality. Experts agree that the Met, MoMA, and the Getty are the top three US photographic collections. The Getty only began collecting in 1984 but, with mammoth funds at its disposal, quickly romped forward. Today it has 65,000 items and with 7000 sq feet of permanent exhibition space, mounts three shows at any given time. ‘Our strength is 1839-1945, but it's hard to compete with venerable Bradford, and the V&A with half a million images. And MoMA is much stronger in regard to 20th century work, as one would expect’ says Judy Keller, acting head of photography at the Getty. A second US tier would include San Francisco's MoMA, Art Institute of Chicago, MFA Houston, Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City, George Eastman House, The National Gallery in Washington DC, MFA Boston, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. One thing the V&A offers that no other museum does, is access to the photo collection through a Study Room. Five days a week, no appointment necessary, any member of the public can ask to see anything.
So what next? ‘The Met is an encyclopedic museum. We can show photography within a continuum, a great plus,’ says Daniel. ‘What sets our efforts apart, is a recognition that what we exhibit will be around the corner from a room full of great Manets, or upstairs from masterpieces of classical antiquity and African art, or a few steps from a drawing by Michelangelo or etchings by Rembrandt or Goya. Contemporary photography resonates differently at the Met because of that context.’
I asked Daniel what if he could wave a magic wand. ‘I'd bring into reality longheld plans to build a study room where people could examine works from the collection and where classes could be taught. I'd build our postwar and contemporary collections to the same world-class level as our collection of photographs from the medium's first century. I'd build our endowments for acquisition, conservation, and publications to insure the department's future. And I'd bring more people into contact with the collection.’
If any confirmation is needed that photography is now the hot, high profile, collectible medium, the Met's new emphasis confirms it.
PHOTOICON Magazine is grateful to Malcolm Daniel and Glenna Stewart
for their invaluable assistance in preparing this feature article.
All images strictly ©The Metropolitan Museum or as otherwise stated
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