"Americana Prints: Matches and Match-boxes" Textile
This dynamic design was clearly a favorite of Steichen’s, since the photograph from which it was derived was included as the only example of his work for Stehli in Steichen the Photographer (1929) by Carl Sandburg, and also appears in Steichen’s 1963 memoir A Life in Photography. Poet Sandburg commented: "Matches, we learn, have different existences and souls under different arrangements of their corporate unities; under one light flood they are radiant and singing, under a more subdued medium of light they are serene and composed."[1]
[1] Carl Sandburg. Steichen the Photographer. New York, 1929, p. 56.
[1] Carl Sandburg. Steichen the Photographer. New York, 1929, p. 56.
Artwork Details
- Title: "Americana Prints: Matches and Match-boxes" Textile
- Designer: Edward J. Steichen (American (born Luxembourg), Bivange 1879–1973 West Redding, Connecticut)
- Manufacturer: Stehli Silks Corporation (Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1897–1953)
- Date: 1926 (Series II, released spring 1927)
- Medium: Printed silk
- Dimensions: 36 1/4 x 41 in. (92.1 x 104.1 cm)
- Classification: Textiles-Printed
- Credit Line: Gift of Stehli Silks Corp., 1927
- Object Number: 27.149.4
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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