Windy Day

1951
Not on view
Newman made this picture in Chicago during the winter of 1951, angling his camera downward on the elongated cast shadow of an anonymous woman shopper as she walked toward him; he then rotated the resulting print 180° so that the figure stood upright. These photographs were made as part of the artist's master's thesis at Chicago's Institute of Design, founded by the expatriate Moholy-Nagy in 1937 to propagate the experimental breakthroughs of the "New Vision" aesthetic: unusual viewpoints, photograms, multiple exposures, solarization, and photomontage. Newman's "Shadow" pictures have not only the graphic power and taut construction of the work of his professors Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan, but also some of the gritty urbanism of the period's great painters such as Franz Kline and Willem De Kooning.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Windy Day
  • Artist: Marvin E. Newman (American, 1927–2023)
  • Date: 1951
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: 19.6 x 13.9 cm (7 11/16 x 5 1/2 in. )
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gift of the artist, in honor of Robert Menschel, 1998
  • Object Number: 1998.138
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.