Jack Rabbit
Photograph
1939 (photographed)
1939 (photographed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Frederick Sommer started photographing landscape around 1939, having bought a large-format camera the previous year. About the same time, he also made a series of photographs of decaying animals he encountered on desert walks. Like the rabbit pictured here, which is returning to the earth as it decomposes, these photographs suggest a meditation on the cycle of life and death.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Jack Rabbit (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Gelatin-silver print |
| Brief description | 'Jack Rabbit, 1939', photograph by Frederick Sommer (1905-1999) |
| Physical description | Photograph of a decaying rabbit on a deseart ground. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Gallery label | Near and far
Sommer started photographing landscape around 1939, having bought a large-format camera the previous year. With their flattened compositions and meticulous detail, his desert scenes suggest the plans and maps he would have made when working as a landscape architect. Their patterning, minimal shadow and omitted horizon also have much in common with the 'all-over' field paintings of American Abstract Expressionist painters. Perhaps, like those paintings, these atomised landscapes devoid of human presence speak of existential unease in the wake of world war.
About the same time, Sommer also made a series of photographs of decaying animals he encountered on desert walks. Like the rabbit pictured here, which is returning to the earth as it decomposes, these photographs suggest a meditation on the cycle of life and death.
Jack Rabbit
1939
Gelatin-silver print
Given by the photographer
Museum no. E.996-1993
Arizona Landscape
1943
Gelatin-silver print
Given by the photographer
Museum no. E.998-1993
Arizona Landscape
1943
Gelatin-silver print
Given by the photographer
Museum no. E.999-1993
Arizona Landscape
1945
Gelatin-silver print
Given by the photographer
Museum no. E.1000-1993
Arizona Landscape
1943
Gelatin-silver print
Given by the photographer
Museum no. E.1001-1993(20/01/2005) |
| Credit line | Given by the photographer |
| Historical context | Frederick Sommer’s photographs marry a surrealist imagination with brilliant photographic technique: the airless Arizona Landscapes are his most famous and personal creation. Devoid of markers of scale or distance, these panoramic views seem like endless expanses of space, immeasurable and sublime. In 1939 he created a series of grotesque still-lifes, depicting the heads and entrails of chickens with perfect precision. Sommer’s images are often akin to surrealist paintings, mysterious, tense or foreboding in mood, and suggesting as he said, that "something metaphysical is happening". |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | Frederick Sommer started photographing landscape around 1939, having bought a large-format camera the previous year. About the same time, he also made a series of photographs of decaying animals he encountered on desert walks. Like the rabbit pictured here, which is returning to the earth as it decomposes, these photographs suggest a meditation on the cycle of life and death. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.996-1993 |
About this object record
Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
| Record created | July 30, 2003 |
| Record URL |
Download as: JSON
