Hannah Shapiro
Cataloguer & Sale Coordinator
Lot 8
Alma Lavenson(1897-1989)'Cactus I'
25 March – 3 April 2025, 12:00 EDT
Online, New YorkSold for US$10,240 inc. premium
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Kelly Sidley
Head of Department
Lucie Kessler
Associate Specialist
Alma Lavenson (1897-1989)
'Cactus I', c. 1931-32
Unique gelatin silver print; mounted, signed in pencil on the mount, titled and dated in pencil on the reverse.
9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (24.1 x 19.1 cm.)
mount 18 x 15 in. (45.7 x 38.1 cm.)
Unique gelatin silver print; mounted, signed in pencil on the mount, titled and dated in pencil on the reverse.
9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in. (24.1 x 19.1 cm.)
mount 18 x 15 in. (45.7 x 38.1 cm.)
Footnotes
Provenance
Susie Tompkins Buell Collection, San Francisco
Page Imageworks, San Francisco
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1997
Note
Alma Lavenson's self-guided pursuit of photography began in earnest in 1923, when she made her first series of carefully constructed images. She spent months perusing photography magazines and observing the technique of a printer at Bowman's Drugstore in Oakland, in order to inform her practice. Within a few years, Lavenson had committed herself wholly to the craft, participating in photography salons and exhibitions, submitting her work to various publications, and exploring the Bay Area artistic community.
In 1930, local arts patron Albert Bender introduced Lavenson to Imogen Cunningham (along with Edward Weston and Consuelo Kanaga), an encounter that irrevocably altered her work. Until that point, Lavenson's images had embodied the painterly, soft-focus aesthetic of Pictorialism. After her introduction to 'Straight Photography', Lavenson abandoned her "two-dollar" Waterbury lens for an anastigmatic lens, assuming a sharp-focus approach to convey the geometric lines of the architectural and industrial studies for which her work would become celebrated.
Among this group of new acquaintances, Cunningham particularly influenced Lavenson's work. While Cunningham's photographs often featured lush botanicals and dramatic nudes, Lavenson was instead drawn to architectural and industrial themes. The two photographers engaged in an artistic dialogue throughout the course of their careers and remained lifelong friends. Cunningham's botanical work from the 1920s captivated Lavenson – her first photographic purchase had been Cunningham's 1925 image, Magnolia Blossom. Lavenson began her own exploration of botanical subjects in the early 1930s, evidenced by the present work.
This photograph - titled 'Cactus I' in Lavenson's hand on the reverse of the mount - stands as a striking modernist image. Purely isolated from nature against a stark white background, the flower's bloom and spiny leaves are rendered with deep tonality. The flower's pollen center is presented in sharp focus, contributing a layered analytic complexity to the otherwise straightforward geometry of composition. Just a few years prior, in 1929, photographer Karl Blossfeldt had published his Urformen der Kunst (Art Forms in Plants), a detailed and scientific study of the botanical world which may have had a profound effect on Lavenson – her copy of the tome remained on her bookshelf throughout the remainder of her life.
Prints of Lavenson's botanical studies are scarce and are rare to market. At the time of this writing, no other print of this image is known to exist.