Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Preview image of work. gelatin silver print, Chicago 210 9660

1986.44

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Chicago 210

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Artist

Aaron Siskind (New York City, New York, 12/4/1903 - 2/8/1991, Providence, Rhode Island)

Title

Chicago 210

Creation Date

1954

Century

20th century

Dimensions

13 7/16 in. x 10 1/2 in. (34.1 cm. x 26.6 cm.)

Classification

Photographs

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

gelatin silver print

Credit Line

Museum Purchase

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

1986.44

Tightly focusing on found objects both natural and manmade, Aaron Siskind pioneered an approach to “abstract” photography that privileged flattened planes and intersecting shapes over recognizable subject matter and spatial depth. Siskind selected his subjects somewhat unconsciously, realizing after the fact that part of their appeal came from the free associations they provoked: the shapes resembling letters, animals, and human figures. In Untitled, the strand of seaweed strewn haphazardly on the beach becomes a kind of automatic drawing generated by nature. Close studies of torn posters on city walls, as in Chicago 210 (1986.44), reveal built-up layers of urban memory, subject to erosion but still there for those willing to look.