Photography
Luke Swank, "Untitled [house]," ca, 1930s
- Item Number
- 36
- Estimated Value
- 2500 USD
- Opening Bid
- 950 USD
Item Description
Luke Swank (American, 1890-1944)
Untitled [perhaps Pittsburgh house], ca. late 1930s
Gelatin silver print
Image: 6 1/8 x 8 1/2 inches
Framed: 21x 17 1/4 x 1 inches
Signed and dated on mount in pencil
Luke Swank was a pioneering Pittsburgh photographer. His large and varied body of work moved from an early pictorial style in the late 1920s to precise, sharp, modernist images that combine a documentary reality with abstraction and the surreal. At the height of his career, his work was included in several prestigious exhibitions in New York (at MOMA and the Julien Levy Galery, among them), Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Frank Crowninshield, editor of Vanity Fair, once remarked, "Not only is Luke Swank interested in interpreting American life, but in revealing what is particular to American light and air. Therein, we believe, lies his artistry."
Item Special Note
About The Artist
Widely recognized during his lifetime, Swank had largely gone unnoticed after his death until the 2005 major retrospective exhibition Luke Swank: Modernist Photographer at the Carnegie Museum of Art in 2005.
The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue written by Howard Bossen (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005).
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