Berenice Abbott, Inside the Archive @Commerce Graphics

JTF (just the facts): A total of 97 black and white images, variously framed and matted, and densely hung throughout the main gallery area, the offices, and the entrance hallway, winding around and covering virtually every available wall space. The images themselves were made between 1925 and 1967 (most are from the 1930s), and the prints on display are a mixture of vintage and later prints, including some bigger enlargements. Sizes range from 4x3 to 40x30, with most being 10x8 or reverse. While many of the works are matted, a small group of exhibition prints mounted on masonite (with beveled edges) are also on display. Two glass cases house a variety of letters, technical notes and other ephemera, including rejection letters from the Vanderbilts and Astors for her Changing New York project. Her camera is also on display. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: When an exhibition is titled "Inside the Archive", I think it sets the expectation that the images on view will be a collection of rarities and variants, lesser known images and forgotten gems that will help fill in the background to the more prominent and likely already agreed upon narrative. This exhibit of materials from the Berenice Abbott archive is a chaotic mix of old and new, and while there are some unexpected items to see, overall, I think the show misses the chance to really dive into the depths of the secondary and tertiary imagery and expand the scholarship on her artistic process and point of view.

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The show bounces around all of her most notable projects, from early Paris portraits and iconic New York scenes, to mid 1950s America and her later scientific work. Unfortunately, the exhibit lacks a coherent organizational thread - works from various time periods and projects (as well as printing sizes/styles) are often jumbled together, so that it is difficult to draw conclusions about how these particular prints add to what it is already known about Abbott. Smaller, tighter niche exhibits of archival material from any one of her projects could fill the available space and tell us something new about that particular subject and body of work; perhaps this exhibit is just trying to do too much.

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This is not to say that there aren't amazing works to be seen and savored. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing some of the 1940s and 1950s exhibition prints of her famous New York images, which were displayed on intimate-sized masonite boards; they are significantly warmer than standard prints of these negatives, with a strong sepia tone. I also liked seeing the 1940s industrial prints of smoke stacks and oil refineries, as well as some excellent scientific views that I hadn't seen before. Abbott's 1950s work seems to be the most in need of a defining exhibit - a selection of images from her road trips across America are on display, but I lacked the context to try to draw deeper conclusions about their overall importance.

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In general, I think this show will appeal most to die hard Abbott fans (like us) who are willing to sift through the dense walls to find some of the spectacular gems tucked in the corners. In some sense, this exhibit is a mini-retrospective (given its broad coverage of her work), but in the end, even though the prints themselves might have surprising stories to tell, the exhibit lacks the structure and editing required to successfully bring forth the new ideas that may be hiding near the surface.

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Collector's POV: As is perhaps obvious, Abbott's estate is represented by Commerce Graphics. Prices in this show range from $6000 to $38000. Her work is nearly ubiquitous at auction, with dozens of prints (a mix of vintage and later) coming up for sale in any given year. Prices have typically ranged from as low as $1000 to approximately $35000, with the majority still under $5000.

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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• DLK COLLECTION review of 2 volume Berenice Abbott Steidl edition (here)

Berenice Abbott, Inside the Archive

Through May 28th

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Commerce Graphics Ltd.

506 East 74th Street

New York, NY 10021

Book: Berenice Abbott (2 Volumes)

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2008 by Steidl (here). 2 volumes, in a cloth slipcase. Volume I is 264 pages, with 118 black and white images, and includes essay by Ron Kurtz and Hank O'Neal. Volume II is 316 pages with 151 black and white images. (Cover shot at right, via Photo Eye.)

Comments/Context: While we already own a long shelf full of books on Berenice Abbott, I had a feeling I knew what was in the wrapping paper when this monster thumped down in front of me at a recent birthday celebration. I have been not so secretly coveting this two volume set from afar since it came out, but I couldn't really ever justify buying it for myself, so I was overjoyed when the paper came off and I found this beauty underneath.

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I think Berenice Abbott belongs at the top of the list of the most underrated master photographers. Sure, everyone has heard of her, has been amazed by her images of New York, and recognizes her as a pioneer. And yet she had a staggeringly consistent career over many decades, made iconic works in several subject matter genres, developed many important technical innovations and inventions, and nearly single handedly created the legacy of Eugene Atget in her spare time. She was a crusty, outspoken, pain in the ass who summarily rejected the influence of Stieglitz and went her own way, thumbing her nose at the ridiculous photography establishment (her view) in the process. As a result, she had to struggle to make her art for nearly her entire life, and only found commercial success in her last years when she had effectively retired from picture making.

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I've talked to quite a few collectors who have followed a similar path to ours with regard to Abbott's work. When we first started collecting, her famous New York pictures mesmerized us, but after immersing ourselves in them for a few years, we began to wander off to other artists who seemed more exciting or innovative. And yet, we now find ourselves circling back to Abbott, perhaps understanding her pictures a bit better with time, digging deeper into her body of work and finding satisfying images of all kinds that are less well known or overexposed. This set of books therefore comes at a perfect moment for us, as we have a renewed interest in the nooks and crannies of her output.

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Most of the books on Abbott suffer from lackluster quality: cheap paper and bindings, uninspired and dated printing etc. These books however bear the hallmarks of top class contemporary publishing: beautiful tritone images on silky paper (one to a page), cloth bound books with tipped in images on the covers, and a sturdy slipcase. The first volume gathers together her portraits (mostly from the 1920s and 1930s, but a few from later years as well), her shots of rural and roadside America (including her Route 1 series and her late images of Maine), and her scientific pictures. The second volume covers her work in New York, both from Changing New York and after.

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So while we have seen the vast majority of these images before (and own a few to boot here), the printing in these volumes is so much better than anything else on Abbott that the pictures seem wholly fresh and new; it isn't a catalog raisonne, but it's as close as we're likely to ever see for her work. So for you Abbott collectors out there who have been waiting to buy this set, I can say with some conviction that once you acquire this pair, you will abandon the rest of your Abbott library (with the exception of Changing New York itself) and use it exclusively as your definitive reference on the artist.

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Collector’s POV: The estate of Berenice Abbott is represented by Commerce Graphics in New York (here). Her work is routinely available at auction, with often as many as 100 of her prints (a mix of vintage and later) coming up for sale in any given year. Prices range from as low as $1000 to approximately $35000, with the majority still under $5000. Her iconic, vintage New York works and a few celebrated portraits (James Joyce etc.) come out at the top of the range, but many secondary and tertiary vintage New York images are still very affordable, as are prints from most of her other projects; a large number of later prints and portfolio prints swirling around in the market have also helped to depress prices.

Transit Hub:

• Other reviews: 5B4 (here), Newsweek (here), Guardian (here)

Book: Arnold Newman, The Early Work

JTF (just the facts): Published by Steidl in 2008. 232 pages, including 107 black and white plates. Essays by Ron Kurtz, Howard Greenberg, and Philip Brookman. (Imperfect cover shot at right.)

Comments/Context: Odds are that the first thing most collectors remember about Arnold Newman is that he was a master portrait photographer. His images of Piet Mondrian in his studio, Albert Giacometti in front of his sculptures, and Igor Stravinsky at the piano (among many, many others) made him the father of "Environmental Portraiture", where subjects were photographed in the context of their lives, rather than pinned to monochrome surfaces like Penn or Avedon.

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This book however chronicles the first five years of Newman's career as a photographer (1938-1942), when he was experimenting with documentary and abstract imagery (non-portraits). In these images, Newman arranges fragments into carefully composed formal structures of light and form, digesting the ideas of both Modernism and Cubism. There are also echoes of the Walker Evans of American Photographs, both in subject matter and approach, particularly in the more documentary pictures.

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To our eyes, the images of walls and doors, ladders and light fixtures, clapboard houses and wood shacks compare well with Evans, Strand, and Steiner (who predate him), and inform early Siskind and Ralston Crawford (who came slightly later). This is a well crafted book of an excellent body of work, right in the wheelhouse of the kind of abstract city images we like for our collection.

Collector's POV: Newman's early work isn't available much in the secondary markets, but his portraits are nearly always up for sale, fetching anywhere from $2000 to perhaps $20000, depending on the subject. Arnold Newman is represented by Howard Greenberg Gallery (here) and the estate is owned by Commerce Graphics (here).