September 13, 1997 to November 30, 1997
A Poetic Vision:
The Photographs of Anne Brigman
Presented by the Art Department

The soft-focus, evocative images of California's foremost Pictorialist photographer were the subject of an exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California. A Poetic Vision: The Photographs of Anne Brigman was on view September 13 through November 30, 1997. The exhibition of 75 images spans the artist's career from the turn of the century to the mid-1930s. This is the first solo exhibition to be drawn from four major collections of her work -- those held by the Oakland Museum, George Eastman House, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the private collection of Michael G. Wilson. A Poetic Vision was organized by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The Oakland Museum is the last stop on the show's national tour.

The Pictorialists, inspired by Alfred Stieglitz of New York and painters of the Tonalist school, are known for the poetic quality of their images. Working to bring photography into the ealm of fine arts, they were the first to use their cameras as an artistic medium, often manipulating negatives in the dark room to create soft, subjective effects. Brigman joined this movement in 1902 when she had her first show in the second San Francisco Salon, an annual group show organized by the California Camera Club. The following year, she became the first and only photographer west of the Mississippi Rive r-- and the only woman -- to be admitted by Stieglitz into his Photo-Secession, a hand-picked, internationally renowned society of avant-garde photographers. As a California photographer, she was revered by her West Coast colleagues, influencing a whole generation of prominent photographers that includes Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham.

Brigman's favorite subject was the female nude, often posed outdoors in dramatic landscapes to suggest an intimate, immensely powerful connection to the natural world. Back in her Oakland studio, Brigman then used pencils, paint, chemicals and even etching tools directly on her negatives to achieve her aesthetic effects. She often combined negatives, sandwiching them together in her enlarger so that images were superimposed on one another. Favorite clouds, rock outcroppings or trees would appear repeatedly, transcending mere depiction to become subjective elements in her highly personal vision.

Among her better known images, The Source, 1908, a gelatin silver print in the Oakland Museum's collections, evokes the timeless spring of life in a soft-focus image of a kneeling female nude pouring water from a small vessel. In another image, Untitled (Self-Portrait), n.d., also in the museum's collection, Brigman sits half reclining in a flowing robe, her gaze contemplatively focused on a large glass ball that reflects the glowing windows of her studio.

Later images in the exhibition reflect Brigman's continuing evolution as an artist. In 1929 she moved to Long Beach, California, and turned her attention to the beaches and industry of Los Angeles County. Many of these lesser-known images, a striking contrast to her Pictorialist work, were shown in the exhibition for the first time.

Funding for A Poetic Vision: The Photographs of Anne Brigman was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Women's Board, and the Dana and Albert R. Broccoli Foundation. The exhibition's Oakland Museum of California venue was supported by the members of the Oakland Museum of California.

For more photography at OMCA visit our photography resource page.

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