The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/ae/2004/09/10/siskind_celebration_mfah

September 10, 2004 > Arts & Entertainment > Siskind’s phots offer beauty in black and white

Siskind’s phots offer beauty in black and white

By Christina Frangos | Thresher Editorial Staff

Evocative photography beckons the viewer into the beauty of Aaron Siskind’s microscopic world. Currently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Centennial Celebration exhibit of the late New Yorker invites contemplation and awe. Siskind is best known for his use of found objects, household surfaces and graffiti, which he takes out of usual contexts, often photographing them under an almost microscopic lens. In doing so, he obliterates the normal connotations associated with an object. Instead of creating stories within each of his photographs, Siskind uses textures, patterns, and stunning contrasts between light and dark to evoke feelings and emotions in his audience. On display in the one-room exhibit are gelatin silver photographs and a couple of photogravures from both the early and later stages of Siskind’s career. A part of his documentary phase, ‘Facades’ (1937-‘40), profiles a nameless New York City street which could be found in any Northern city. In this series, Siskind manages to find intense beauty in the mundanity of a street façade. ‘Savoy Dancers’ (1937), from the series ‘Harlem Document,’ is another early piece, featuring a large man sporting a snazzy pinstripe suit and his partner, a smiling woman with stunningly white pumps that light up the photograph. The dancers, limbs raised into the air as they lean toward the right edge of the photograph, convey the graceful and controlled movement of their bodies. The man’s wide-open mouth makes us wonder if he is belting out the latest jazz tune. In this picture, Siskind captures the hopping culture of the time’s premier swing club, the Savoy. Born in 1903, Siskind began exploring the photographic medium when he received a camera for a honeymoon gift at age 27. His early work was largely documentary, but after 1940, his focus shifted to abstraction, symbol and form, following the route of abstract expressionist painters Franz Kline and Jackson Pollock. Siskind’s close relationship with painter Kline is evident in his photographs, some of which take on the form of abstract paintings. The exhibit shows miniature replicas of the Kline paintings that clearly influenced Siskind’s photography in Jalapa 7 (1973) and Lima 89 (1975). Just a few rooms away from the Siskind exhibit hang some of Kline’s paintings, which Siskind mimicked while replicating Kline’s ‘dragging brush’ technique — something wholly impressive given Siskind’s medium is devoid of oil paint and brushes. Part of the allure of Siskind’s works is the sense of relaxation and normality in his subjects. A Caucasian in the mainly African-American Harlem, Siskind’s presence does not impose upon his art. The subjects seem unaware of being photographed — a quality present in the works of renowned French photographer Henri Cartier Bresson. Siskind’s works entitled ‘Gloucester 16A’ (1944) and ‘Gloucester 25’ (1944) look like wooden planks in the forms of faces with hollowed-out eyes and flat profiles in relief against a darkened backdrop. A wooden strip to the left of each face creates the feeling that the profiles are peering out behind bars. Siskind’s remarkable ability to turn indiscernible objects into distinctly anthropomorphic forms stands out in this exhibit. For example, rock monoliths against a stark white sky appear to be reclining beachgoers, and cracks in a wall become lively dancing forms. Death seems just as visible in lava formations, which evoke the mass graves of Auschwitz and the events at Pompeii. Siskind highlights humanity’s similarity to nature and shows us how indistinguishable we are from the minerals that compose us. While some of Siskind’s art is recognizable, some is not wholly unintelligible, which invites philosophical contemplation. In his Artist’s Credo, Siskind references photography as something new and ‘self-contained,’ offering consistency in an ever-changing world. The viewer must find new contexts through which to experience art. The series ‘Pleasures and Tremors of Levitation’ — 10 square prints from ‘Portfolio Number 6’ — is particularly stunning. This set of photographs flanks an entire side of the partition wall of the exhibit room. The shots are of divers in a different states of motion. The subjects, shadowy with faces obscured, contrast with the bright white backdrop that creates the illusion of man isolated in space. The Siskind exhibit depicts the full range of humanity’s tragedies and triumphs. In his world, even aged masking tape becomes beautiful, and we gain a renewed wonder at the complexity of the simple things around us.

End of article

Back to top