About the Artwork
The skewed perspective and bizarre focusing evident in this photograph were achieved with distortion mirrors. Kertész’s first serious experiments with distorted imagery occurred in 1929. In 1933, using a pair of circus mirrors, he produced a series of nudes known as the “Distortions.” Although Kertész never claimed specific identification with André Breton and his colleagues of the surrealist movement, Kertész’s work of the 1920s and 1930s evinces parallel interests. In the pursuit of visually provocative photographs, Kertész actively manipulated his imagery. He sought out ironies, oddities, and mysteries in nature and photographed strangely juxtaposed subjects to which he attached suggestive titles.
Melancholic Tulip
1939
André Kertész
1894 - 1985
American
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Gelatin silver print
Image: 13 3/8 × 8 3/8 inches (34 × 21.3 cm)
Photographs
Prints, Drawings & Photographs
Founders Society Purchase, Acquisitions Fund
F1983.69
Restricted
Markings
Signed in black pen and ink, verso, center: Andre Kertesz In pencil, lower center, verso: A Kertesz
Inscribed in pencil, upper left, verso: [words illegible and under glue residue] Dated in pencil, below stamped signature, verso: 1939 In pencil, below penciled date and to the right, verso: Printed 1939. | A.K In blue pencil, center, verso: 10 - 47 In red pencil, lower verso: 22 pica In black pen and ink, verso, center: 67 W 44 St NYC In pencil, lower center, verso: 5 - 6 - 81
Stamp, in black ink, upper center, verso: ANDRE KERTESZ
Provenance
Edwynn Houk Gallery (New York, New York, USA);1983-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
"New Photography Gallery." Printable News (September 1983): p. 1 (ill.).
Photographs from Detroit Collections. Detroit, 1983, p. 32, (fig. 16).
Riley, Harold, et al. Andre Kertesz: The Manchester Collection. Manchester, 1984, p. 163, no. 259.
Bulletin of the DIA: Annual Report (1984): p. 36 (fig. 22).
Phillips, Sandra S., David Travis, and Weston J. Naef. André Kertész of Paris and New York. Chicago, 1985, p. 208 (ill.), cat. no. 159.
Weaver, Mike, ed. The Art of Photography 1839-1989. New Haven and London, 1989, no. 257.
A Visitor's Guide: The Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1995, p. 262 (ill.).
Sojka, Nancy. "What is the Graphic Arts Collection at the DIA?" Bulletin of the DIA 80, no. 1/2 (2006): p. 13 (fig. 15).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
André Kertész, Melancholic Tulip, 1939, gelatin silver print. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Acquisitions Fund, F1983.69.
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