Consuelo Kanaga - Photographs New York Wednesday, April 6, 2022 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Directly from the artist
    Private Collection, New York
    Houk Friedman Gallery, New York
    Weinstein Gallery, Minneapolis

  • Literature

    Millstein and Lowe, Consuelo Kanaga: An American Photographer, p. 167

  • Catalogue Essay

    Few photographers’ lives have threaded in and out of the history of 20th-century photography as did Consuelo Kanaga’s. Born in Oregon, she began her photographic career at the San Francisco Chronicle, and from there her work in the medium brought her into contact with a whole host of notables: from Albert Bender to Alfred Stieglitz, from photographers associated with Group f.64 to those of New York’s Photo League. A true individualist, she connected deeply with her colleagues in the field, but declined to become a member of any movement or devote herself to a single ideology. In a career that spanned decades, her approach to photography was driven exclusively by an overriding sense of empathy for her subjects.

    Much of Kanaga’s work is focused on the African-American experience. Her photographs avoided the cliché, the dramatized, or the sentimental, and focused instead on the dignity of the individuals who came before her camera. She was socially progressive in a segregated America and a passionate champion of those ill-treated or ignored by society.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE WEST COAST COLLECTION

169

Mother and Son (The Question, Florida)

1950
Gelatin silver print.
10 1/2 x 8 1/8 in. (26.7 x 20.6 cm)
Credit stamp on the verso.

Estimate
$15,000 - 25,000 

Sold for $15,120

Contact Specialist

Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs
skrueger@phillips.com


Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com

Photographs

New York Auction 6 April 2022