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(American, 1904-1971) ROLLING COILED ALUMINUM SHEET signed "Margaret Bourke-White" in pencil on verso negative number "4/322" inscribed in black wax pencil on verso "Al. Co." inscribed on verso in pencil toned vintage gelatin silver print 131/4 x 95/16 in. (33.7 x 23.7 cm) 1929 PROVENANCE Acquired from the artist by a mid-western corporation, circa 1930 Private Collection, NORTH AMERICA (1989) EXHIBITED LONDON, Annely Juda Gallery, ANDR+ KERT+SZ AND THE AVANT-GARDE PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE TWENTIES AND THIRTIES, February 25-April 10, 1999 LITERATURE ANDRT KERTTSZ AND THE AVANT-GARDE PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE TWENTIES AND THIRTIES, London, 1999, pl. 6 (illustrated) This photograph demonstrates Margaret Bourke-White's fascination with industrialism and the machine esthetic, an interest that originated in childhood, due to the influence of her father, an engineer and inventor. Bourke-White began her industrial photography career with commissions from the Otis Steel Company in 1927. Shortly thereafter she did a feature on the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) for the first edition of FORTUNE magazine in 1930, as the magazine's first staff photographer. This photograph is an excellent example of the artist's pioneering exploration of abstraction and Modernism, employing a medium she and her contemporaries typically used for more journalistic purposes. To Bourke-White these industrial elements represented nationalistic symbols at a time when isolationism and patriotism were widespread among the American people. This piece unveils Bourke-White's passion for the visual rhythms and patterned geometry that surrounded her in these mills. It can be compared to those prints that were enlarged and included in her dynamic industrial photo-murals, such as the one done for the NBC building in Rockefeller Center. A cropped version of this photograph was, in fact, used in a mural for the Ford Motor Company Pavilion's Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, 1934, at which ALCOA was also one of the exhibitors. This exhibition print stands boldly on its own with its patterned, geometric surface, conveying the rhythmic pulse of this powerful machinery. This photograph features Bourke-White's signature and hand-painted black border, distinguishing characteristics of her exhibition prints. It is believed that this is one of five prints of this image ordered by ALCOA between 1934 and 1936.