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Lot Essay
When The Museum of Modern Art established its first Committee on Photography in 1940, Ansel Adams was appointed the vice-chairman. The committee oversaw the newly formed Department of Photography, which was under the leadership of Beaumont and Nancy Newhall. It was during their years together that the museum would exhibit major retrospectives of Paul Strand (1945), Edward Weston (1946) and Alfred Stieglitz (1947) as well as important thematic exhibitions including How to Make a Photogram (1942), New Workers (1944) and French Photographs: Daguerre to Atget (1945).
In his capacity as vice-chairman, Adams had a strong hand in shaping the new department. Although he, like Beaumont Newhall, strongly preferred 'straight photography', the department did incorporate other styles in their programming—especially when Newhall was enlisted in the military at the onset of World War II and the department began to solicit the opinions of external photographers, critics and curators (Quentin Bajac, 'Modern Photography at MoMA', Photography at MoMA 1920-1960, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2016, p. 14).
Referring to the very view of Yosemite Valley presented in the present lot, Clearing Winter Storm, Ansel Adams once described it as ‘one of the most wonderful viewpoints in the whole world.' Taken around noon on a December day, Adams waited for a snowstorm to clear so he could capture what would become one of his most iconic compositions (Ansel Adams, ‘Yosemite’, Travel and Camera Magazine, October 1946). The vantage point was difficult to navigate but optimal; the weather and light ideal for making a ‘fairly strong’ negative, which Adams considered the canvas on which he burned and dodged his final creation (Stillman, Looking at Ansel Adams: The Photographs and the Man, p. 105).
It is no surprise that Adams, with a lifelong affinity for classical music, astronomy and a deep philosophical drive, was capable of imbuing his prints with a sense of existential realism that went far beyond documentation. As a young man Adams admired Beethoven and his ability to convey ‘a world of thought of the loftiest nature’ bringing the listener ‘so much closer to an understanding of the Great Mystery’ (Anne Hammond, Ansel Adams: Divine Performance, Yale University Press, 2002, p. 4). This is arguably what Adams achieved for his viewers. With superlative technical skill and the intellectual rigor necessary to evoke such raw emotion from a photograph, he successfully crafted experiences.
The present print of Clearing Winter Storm was included in the 1963 exhibition, The Photographer and the American Landscape and is believed to have been printed at approximately that time. It was subsequently included in exhibitions, American Landscapes (1981) and Ansel Adams at 100 (2003).
In his capacity as vice-chairman, Adams had a strong hand in shaping the new department. Although he, like Beaumont Newhall, strongly preferred 'straight photography', the department did incorporate other styles in their programming—especially when Newhall was enlisted in the military at the onset of World War II and the department began to solicit the opinions of external photographers, critics and curators (Quentin Bajac, 'Modern Photography at MoMA', Photography at MoMA 1920-1960, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2016, p. 14).
Referring to the very view of Yosemite Valley presented in the present lot, Clearing Winter Storm, Ansel Adams once described it as ‘one of the most wonderful viewpoints in the whole world.' Taken around noon on a December day, Adams waited for a snowstorm to clear so he could capture what would become one of his most iconic compositions (Ansel Adams, ‘Yosemite’, Travel and Camera Magazine, October 1946). The vantage point was difficult to navigate but optimal; the weather and light ideal for making a ‘fairly strong’ negative, which Adams considered the canvas on which he burned and dodged his final creation (Stillman, Looking at Ansel Adams: The Photographs and the Man, p. 105).
It is no surprise that Adams, with a lifelong affinity for classical music, astronomy and a deep philosophical drive, was capable of imbuing his prints with a sense of existential realism that went far beyond documentation. As a young man Adams admired Beethoven and his ability to convey ‘a world of thought of the loftiest nature’ bringing the listener ‘so much closer to an understanding of the Great Mystery’ (Anne Hammond, Ansel Adams: Divine Performance, Yale University Press, 2002, p. 4). This is arguably what Adams achieved for his viewers. With superlative technical skill and the intellectual rigor necessary to evoke such raw emotion from a photograph, he successfully crafted experiences.
The present print of Clearing Winter Storm was included in the 1963 exhibition, The Photographer and the American Landscape and is believed to have been printed at approximately that time. It was subsequently included in exhibitions, American Landscapes (1981) and Ansel Adams at 100 (2003).