In 1939, antiaircraft bullets traced projectile patterns across the skies of Palermo. Turning his camera up, Giuseppe Albergamo abstracted these omens of war into an entwining tapestry of light. He was affiliated with the Italian futurist movement, and here heeds the group’s 1930 manifesto on photography, which urged practitioners to push the medium "over the border into pure art" while also "encouraging its development in the fields of physics, chemistry, and war."
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Artwork Details
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Title:Light Weavings
Artist:Giuseppe Albergamo (Italian, 1888–1964)
Date:1939
Medium:Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:7.8 x 12.8 cm (3 1/16 x 5 1/16 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987
Object Number:1987.1100.347
Inscription: Signed and inscribed in pencil on print, verso C: "Albergamo, // 2) Feu de Beufale [underlined], 1939";
Acquired by the Italian scholar of Futurist photography Giovanni Lista between 1969 and 1980, possibly from the artist's decendents; [Sotheby's, New York, Italian Futurist Photographs, New York, November 9, 1982, Lot #1, to Waddell]; John C. Waddell
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 23–December 31, 1989.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 28–April 22, 1990.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 10–July 15, 1990.
High Museum of Art. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 5–April 28, 1991.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars. The Ford Motor Company Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 8–August 4, 1991.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 5," June 14–August 28, 1994.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld. "Abstract Photography," December 3, 2000–February 18, 2001.
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. "Abstract Photography," March 24, 2001–May 3, 2001.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Night Vision: Photography After Dark," April 26–September 5, 2011.
Brassaï (French (born Romania), Brașov 1899–1984 Côte d'Azur)
1932, printed ca. 1960
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