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Artist or Maker: ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)

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Description: ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)
Clouds and Hills, Northern California, 1940s
gelatin silver mural print, printed 1970-1975
27 3/8 x 34 3/8in. (69.8 x 87.3cm.); flush-mounted

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Notes: 'Most people like it...Perhaps they feel what it is - a sort of apotheosis of Stieglitz; an equivalent of an equivalent.' (Ansel Adams, An Autobiography )

Ansel Adams first met Alfred Stieglitz in New York in 1932 and was given a one-man show at An American Place in 1936. In his autobiography, Adams wrote of Stieglitz that 'Rather than say that he influenced me in my work, he revealed me to myself. Stieglitz taught me what became my first commandment: 'Art is the affirmation of life.'

Other photographs by Adams in the collection such as Poplars, Near Bishop (lot 1062) could be argued to refer directly to Stieglitz's own studies of Poplars at Lake George. Adams also dedicated Portfolio One (lot 1018) to Alfred Stieglitz.