Lot Essay
This print is unique. No other prints were in the estate of the photographer at the time of Lois Cunningham Outerbridge's gift to Laguna Art Museum in 1968.
In Photgraphing in Color, his 1940 publication, Outerbridge states, "I think that still life presents perhaps the greatest possibilities for purely creative work in color photography, for to put life into still life, into inanimate objects, to create new rhythms and patterns requires imagination." (Photographing in Color, p. 57.) Graham Howe observes, "Just as Outerbridge's involvement in black and white photography was thorough and compulsive, so too was his study of color photography 'I decided,' he said, 'I wanted to make the best color shots made by anybody, anywhere.'...He explained 'I had gotten completely fed up with photography. Color lured me back - the new difficulties, the new possibilities; it was to me defintely a challenge.' His proficiency in black and white allowed him the insight to compare his responses to both photographic areas: 'In black and white you suggest, in color you state.'" (c.f. Howe & Hawkins, Paul Outerbridge, Jr.: Photographs, p. 16.) Through juxtaposition of color, shape and texture Kandinsky is a clear example of Outerbridge's mastery of this new medium, "Opposing large with small, hard with soft, shiny with dull, hot with cold, often enhances dramatic effect...However, it must be remembered that the mere combination of such elements does not create good pictures unless shapes and colors of these objects are related and, in combination, form a worth while pattern arrangement." (Outerbridge, Photographing in Color, p. 55.)
In Photgraphing in Color, his 1940 publication, Outerbridge states, "I think that still life presents perhaps the greatest possibilities for purely creative work in color photography, for to put life into still life, into inanimate objects, to create new rhythms and patterns requires imagination." (Photographing in Color, p. 57.) Graham Howe observes, "Just as Outerbridge's involvement in black and white photography was thorough and compulsive, so too was his study of color photography 'I decided,' he said, 'I wanted to make the best color shots made by anybody, anywhere.'...He explained 'I had gotten completely fed up with photography. Color lured me back - the new difficulties, the new possibilities; it was to me defintely a challenge.' His proficiency in black and white allowed him the insight to compare his responses to both photographic areas: 'In black and white you suggest, in color you state.'" (c.f. Howe & Hawkins, Paul Outerbridge, Jr.: Photographs, p. 16.) Through juxtaposition of color, shape and texture Kandinsky is a clear example of Outerbridge's mastery of this new medium, "Opposing large with small, hard with soft, shiny with dull, hot with cold, often enhances dramatic effect...However, it must be remembered that the mere combination of such elements does not create good pictures unless shapes and colors of these objects are related and, in combination, form a worth while pattern arrangement." (Outerbridge, Photographing in Color, p. 55.)