Barbara Morgan
American, 1900–1992
Martha Graham, "Letter To The World" (Kick), 1940
Gelatin silver print
Image: 14 x 18.5 in. (35.56 x 46.99 cm.)
Sheet: 16 x 20 in. (40.64 x 50.8 cm.)
Signed, titled, and dated in ink on recto and verso
Printed 1980
Lot ID141848
Estimate
5,000—8,000 USD
Barbara Morgan’s Martha Graham, "Letter To The World" (Kick) is the most famous image of an American dancer. The work pays tribute to Martha Graham’s groundbreaking choreography in her 1940 piece based on the life of poet Emily Dickinson, which was later labeled “the first authentically American ballet." Morgan and Graham formed a kinship based upon shared ideals as modernists, which resulted in this organic, emotional image of Graham performing. Other impressions of this image are included in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; among many others. Martha Graham, "Letter To The World" (Kick) is the cover of Morgan’s second edition of her esteemed publication Martha Graham: Sixteen Dances in Photographs.
““I wanted to show that Martha had her own vision,” she said about the photo shoots. “That what she was conveying was deeper than ego, deeper than baloney. Dance has to go beyond theater....I was trying to connect her spirit with the viewer—to show pictures of spiritual energy.”–Barbara Morgan
Barbara Morgan (American, 1900–1992) explored multiple mediums such as printmaking, drawing, and watercolor aside from photography. Morgan studied at the University of California, Los Angeles. Amidst her contemporaries who were documentary photographers, Morgan’s work was abstract and set her apart. She is a co-founder at Aperture magazine along with eight other prestigious photographers such as Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange.
Publication:
Barbara Morgan, Martha Graham: Sixteen Dances in Photographs (Morgan & Morgan, 1980), cover.
Provenance:
Private Collection, Atlanta
Private Collection, California
Private Collection, Korea