Triangles

Artist Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883-1976)

Date1928, printed c. 1950

Dimensions3 3/4 x 2 11/16 in. (9.4 x 6.8 cm)

MediumSilverprint

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1982.203

Not on View

Label TextExperimental and fearless, Imogen Cunningham produced challenging photographic images for over 70 years. She is one of the first women to make her living as a photographer and one of the few to exhibit internationally during the first three decades of the 20th century. Cunningham began making images in 1901. From 1907 to 1909 she worked with Edward S. Curtis, famous for his seminal work The North American Indian, a multi volume set of over 2,000 images documenting the lives, customs, and appearance of Native Americans. Through Curtis, Cunningham learned an appreciation for Pictorialism (purposefully composed, often soft-focused compositions meant to emulate fine art). She practiced this form of photography, making allegorical portraits and nude studies, until about 1922. From 1922 until 1929, the requirements of raising a family restricted Cunningham’s image making. She began making photographs of plants that grew close to her home in Seattle. These strongly composed geometric studies are widely considered to be classics today. Through her detailed plant studies, Cunningham developed an appreciation for ‘straight’ photography. She joined with her friends Edward Weston and Ansel Adams to form Group f.64. This association of mainly West Coast photographers rejected Pictorialism in favor of sharply focused, un-manipulated images. By the 1960s, Cunningham had developed an interest in street photography. Searching for the unusual and sometimes radical, she made images of the beat generation and flower children of the San Francisco area. Triangles is unquestionably one of Imogen Cunningham’s most successful and beautiful nude studies, and considered a photographic masterpiece. It is a masterfully lit arrangement of simple, pure, geometric shapes formed as much by the photographer’s unerring judgment as by the model’s sensual body.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Past and Present: Photographs from the Permanent Collection, Jan 22 - June 8, 1999. Toledo Museum of Art, Refraction/Reflection, April 20-September 2, 2012.

Toledo Museum of Art, Looks Good on Paper: Masterworks and Favorites, Oct. 10, 2014-Jan. 11, 2015.