When John Gutmann released his camera's shutter, Marjorie Gestring may have been ascending or descending in her dive, but in the picture the Olympic gold medalist levitates in the pause bridging ascent and descent. The artist himself emphasized the tension of the moment by mounting the photograph eccentrically. Gutmann, an accomplished painter before immigrating to the United States as a photoreporter in 1933, lives in San Francisco.
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Inscription: Signed in pencil on mount, recto CR, beneath image: "John Gutmann"; inscribed in pencil on mount, verso UR: "61.2"; inscribed in pencil on mount, verso LL: "OLYMPIC CHAMPION // MARJORIE GESTRING // Modern Style [crossed out] 1936"; inscribed in pencil on mount, verso LR: "JOHN GUTMANN // 848 CHURCH ST // SAN FRANCISCO CAL. // jg.332.Y";
the artist; [Jeffrey Fraenkel to Waddell, November 5, 1983]; 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 2," May 4–October 3, 1993.
IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia. "The New Vision, IVAM, Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia," January 20, 1995–March 26, 1995.
Victoria and Albert Museum. "Modernism," April 6, 2006–July 23, 2006.
MARTa Herford. "Modernism," September 16, 2006–January 7, 2007.
Corcoran Gallery of Art. "Modernism," March 17, 2007–July 18, 2007.
John Gutmann (American (born Germany), Breslau 1905–1998 San Francisco, California)
1934, printed later
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