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Blumenbachia hieronymi

Artist:
Karl Blossfeldt (German, 1865–1932)
Date:
1915–25
Medium:
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
Image: 29.8 x 23.8 cm (11 3/4 x 9 3/8 in.)
Classification:
Photographs
Credit Line:
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Denise and Andrew Saul Gift, 2005
Accession Number:
2005.100.299
Not on view
Professor Karl Blossfeldt began his exploration of forms in nature in 1890, but his images were little known before their publication in Urformen der Kunst (Art Forms in Nature) in 1928. The renegade Surrealist writer Georges Bataille was fascinated by the hallucinatory clarity and sinister sexuality of Blossfeldt's plant forms and used several of the photographs to illustrate his essay on the enigmatic "language of flowers" in the first issue of his review Documents in June 1929.
Inscription: Inscription on print verso, however it can not be viewed completely due to hinging.
Werner Bokelberg; Hans P. Kraus, Jr., Inc., New York; Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York, September 8, 1997

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Modern Times: Photography Between the Two World Wars," June 9, 1998–October 4, 1998.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 47," September 20, 2007–January 6, 2008.

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. "Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art–Masterpieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 6, 2012–January 4, 2013.

National Museum of China. "Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art–Masterpieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 8, 2013–May 9, 2013.

Barnet, Peter, and Atsuyuki Nakahara. Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art: Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tokyo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. no. 83, pp. 140, 242.

Orenstein, Nadine M., Jeff L. Rosenheim, and Stephen C. Pinson. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin: A Centennial Album: Drawings, Prints, and Photographs 74, no. 3 (Winter 2017). p. 38.

Timelines
Central Europe (Austria, Germany, and Switzerland), 1900 A.D.-present

A Centennial Album: Drawings, Prints, and Photographs: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v.74, no. 3 (Winter, 2017)

Related Objects

Aristolochia Clematitis

Artist: Karl Blossfeldt (German, 1865–1932) Date: ca. 1928, printed 1975 Medium: Gelatin silver print Accession: 1976.638.2 On view in:Not on view

Nigella Damascena Spinnenkopf

Artist: Karl Blossfeldt (German, 1865–1932) Date: ca. 1932, printed 1976 Medium: Gelatin silver print Accession: 1978.602.2 On view in:Not on view

Aristolochia Clematitis

Artist: Karl Blossfeldt (German, 1865–1932) Date: ca. 1928, printed 1975 Medium: Gelatin silver print Accession: 1976.638.1 On view in:Not on view

Urformen der Kunst: Photographische Pflanzenbilder

Artist: Karl Blossfeldt (German, 1865–1932) Date: 1928 Medium: Books Accession: 1987.1100.479 On view in:Not on view
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