Rosalie Gwathmey : Photographs From The Forties [ Glenn Horowitz Bookseller ]
$40
Out of stock
Description
Scarce catalogue from the 1994 Rosalie Gwathmey retrospective of 1940s photographs of African American life from Glenn Horowitz Bookseller
Goldstein, Emily. Gwathmey, Rosalie. Rosenheim, Jeff. Rosalie Gwathmey : Photographs From The Forties. Glenn Horowitz Bookseller : East Hampton, NY. 1994.
Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, Gwathmey trained as a classical portrait painter before acting as an observer and documentary photographer of rural African American life in the deep south, a choice of subject that would later cause issues for both her and her painter husband, Robert Gwathemy.
Moving to Manhattan in 1942, she was a member of the Photo League (as well as the group’s newsletter editor) before that organization was disbanded in the McCarthy era. With the Photo League infiltrated by a mole and her husband followed by the FBI for suspected communism, Gwathmey abandoned photography and destroyed all her remaining negatives in protest. Her work featured in the 1946 New Photographers show at the Museum of Modern Art and the remainder was donated to the New York Public Library before she switched to textile design in the 1960s.
Published in conjunction with Glenn Horowitz Bookseller’s summer 1994 show of the same name, this catalogue consists of an interview with Rosalie Gwathmey conducted by the gallery’s directors at the photographer and designer’s home in Amagansett, New York and serves as the most complete record of her work, rescuing her career from obscurity. Gwathemy died at her home in 2002.
8vo, 30pp, perfect bound printed wraps, corners bumped. Minor soiling to front wrap joint near bottom edge. Top spine bruised. Some spotting back wrap, minor tear to top edge. Two minor creases to back spine. Pages clean with slight warp to top fore corners. Illustrated throughout with lack and white photographs. Very good condition.
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