1989.67
Nude Solarization
Artist
Maurice Tabard
(Lyon, France, 1897 - 1984, Paris, France)
Title
Nude Solarization
Creation Date
1936
Century
20th century
Dimensions
6 7/8 in. x 4 7/8 in. (17.5 cm. x 12.4 cm.)
Classification
Photographs
Creation Place
Europe, France
Medium and Support
gelatin silver print
Credit Line
Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
1989.67
Maurice Tabard’s Nude Solarization crops out the model’s head, arms, and legs, stripping her identity but focusing on her torso in a way that recalls classical sculpture. Its simplicity is made strange by the solarization effect: a partial reversal of light and dark and a haloing around the figure, achieved by briefly turning on a light in the darkroom as a photograph is being developed. Like photograms, solarization was “discovered” by accident and then explored by photographers Man Ray and Lee Miller. Tabard conducted his own experiments with the technique, publishing an article on it in 1933.