Object number1984.51.7

Acolman, Mexico 2

Date1955

Artist Aaron Siskind (American, 1903-1991)

CultureAmerican

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 10 3/8 x 13 5/16 in. (26.35 x 33.81 cm)
Sheet: 10 7/8 x 13 7/8 in. (27.62 x 35.24 cm)

Credit LineGift of Frances F. L. Beatty, class of 1970, in honor of Linda Nochlin Pommer, class of 1951

Period20th c

Classification(s)

Photograph

SignedSigned and dated (verso, UC, in pencil) Aaron Siskind 1955

InscribedInscribed (verso, LL, in pencil): A2-55/4 (verso, top center, in pencil): Acolman, Mexico 2

Vassar Exhibitions

Alumni Reunion Exhibition (1990)

The Friends Focus: On Photography

Exhibition HistoryPoughkeepsie, NY, FLLAC, Vassar College, "The Friends Focus: On Photography," December 7, 1989 - February 11, 1990.

Label TextAaron Siskind’s style shifted over the course of his career from documentary realism to abstract expressionism. This photograph belongs to a 1955 series of close-up views of historical architecture in Mexico—in this case, the buttresses of a church in Acolman just north of Mexico City—that become graphic elements through tight cropping and high contrast. Siskind saw his work in dialogue with trends in abstract painting, a universalizing pictorial language of shape and form. This approach bracketed out social and historical context in favor of the “flat plane” of the surface. At the same time, “I’m not interested in design for design’s sake at all,” Siskind said. “I care only for people. I’m interested only in what I call human destiny.” Siskind’s approach belonged to a period interest in abstracting the specifics of human cultures and histories into an all-encompassing ‘human destiny’—presenting architectural fragments that, in Siskind’s view, stood for the layered whole of human experience across time.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu