Ralston Crawford: Drawings & Photographs

August 16 – December 20, 2014

South Two Gallery

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Presented in conjunction with Ralston Crawford: The Artist’s Eye, Ralston Crawford: Drawings and Photographs offers an in depth consideration of how Ralston Crawford (American, 1906-1978) used photography and drawing as essential creative expressions. For him, these were not methods of conventional preparatory studies, but an avenue to explore more powerful formal possibilities of compositions. In photography, the frame of the viewfinder and the making of prints provided one way of abstracting the urban and industrial settings that inspired him. Drawing was an ongoing pursuit throughout his career as seen in the drawings and drawing books in the exhibition. Isolating Crawford’s photographs and drawings reveals his focus on composition and strong formal visual decisions about image making.

• Funded by Pat Guthrie Special Exhibitions Endowment Funds, Ron and Patti Salvagio Endowment Funds, an anonymous gift, FMC, UW Art Museum Gala Funds, Wyoming Public Radio, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wyoming Arts Council through the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wyoming State Legislature

   

Images:

Left: Ralston Crawford (American, 1906-1978), St. Ann’s Street, 1954, pen and ink on paper, 11-1/4 x 15-1/4 inches, courtesy of the Ralston Crawford Estate and Neelon Crawford, D 895 NC

Right: Ralston Crawford (American, 1906-1978), Bowery, c. 1950s, ink on paper, 10 x 10 inches, courtesy of the Ralston Crawford Estate and Neelon Crawford, M 47 NC