The Intimate Gallery and the Equivalents: Spirituality in the 1920s Work of Stieglitz

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The Intimate Gallery (1925 to 1929) was Alfred Stieglitz's first commercial venture dedicated solely to American modern art. The article compares the gallery with Stieglitz's photographs from the same years, his images of the sky known collectively as the "Equivalents", and proposes that a period-specific concept of spirituality informed the aesthetics of both projects. Central to Stieglitz's beliefs was the idea that bodily experience and spiritual knowledge were intertwined. He thus fostered an understanding of both the gallery and his photographs as interanimating agents, suggesting that the viewer's empathetic response to the art would catalyze a spiritual epiphany.

Publication Title

The Art Bulletin

Publication Date

12-2003

Volume

85

Issue

4

First Page

746

Last Page

768

ISSN

0004-3079

DOI

10.1080/00043079.2003.10787100

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