Down Stairs
In this self-portrait, Hase appears to have tripped, or perhaps to have thrown herself, face-down on a flight of stairs. In her most intriguing work, including this example, the artist experimented with staged scenarios and narratives exploring feminine identity, as would Cindy Sherman half a century later. Another such self-portrait shows her enacting a tearful confession to an anonymous clergyman. Hase turned to photography after beginning her career in the early 1920s as a student of avant-garde graphic design and typography. Despite being a lesser-known photographer, she established a studio in Frankfurt and pursued a variety of subjects, including portraits and still lifes, street scenes, modern architectural views, and botanical studies.
Artwork Details
- Title: Down Stairs
- Artist: Elisabeth Hase (German, 1905–1991)
- Date: ca. 1948
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: Image: 9 1/2 × 7 1/8 in. (24.1 × 18.1 cm)
Sheet: 9 1/2 × 7 1/8 in. (24.1 × 18.1 cm) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Twentieth-Century Photography Fund, 2016
- Object Number: 2016.232
- Rights and Reproduction: © The Estate of Elisabeth Hase, courtesy Robert Mann Gallery
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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