The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

The Inferno--Grand Canyon

The Inferno--Grand Canyon

1919
(American, 1886–1981)
Image: 11.5 x 9.2 cm (4 1/2 x 3 5/8 in.); Matted: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

During the first two decades of the 20th century, Struss was one of the most important photographers working with Pictorialism. After closing his commercial studio in New York in 1919, he moved to Hollywood, where he later became a successful cinematographer. It was on the trip west that Struss visited the Grand Canyon, encountering light, color, and spatial effects surpassing anything he had ever experienced. Immediately inspired, he produced landscape images that were unlike any of his previous work. This photograph's visual complexity and the rich tonal range provided by the palladium process justly recorded the grandeur of the view, providing an immense sense of space and distance. Carefully composed to take advantage of strong light and shadow patterns, he turned geological formations into bold, interlocking abstract forms.
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 347
  • Shadows and Dreams: Pictorialist Photography in America. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 5, 2015-January 17, 2016).
    The Cleveland Museum of Art (9/5/2015 - 1/17/2016); "Pictorialist Photography"
    American Space: Landscape Photography 1900-1950. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 6-May 23, 2001).
    CMA, January 3 - May 23, 2001: "American Space: Landscape Photography, 1900-1950."
    CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art."
    Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997).
    The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).
    CMA, February 24 - April 17, 1988: "Year in Review 1987," CMA Bulletin, 75 (February 1988), p. 67, no. 87.
  • {{cite web|title=The Inferno--Grand Canyon|url=false|author=Karl F. Struss|year=1919|access-date=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1987.151