Robert Stivers — Untitled (Female Torso in Hallway), 1990, Signed Gelatin Silver Print, Edition 3/20

Details

Description

An early gelatin silver photograph with hand-applied photographic emulsion by American photographer Robert Stivers (b. 1953). Titled Untitled (Female Torso … Read more An early gelatin silver photograph with hand-applied photographic emulsion by American photographer Robert Stivers (b. 1953). Titled Untitled (Female Torso in Hallway), dated 1990, and numbered 3/20, the work is signed, titled, dated, and editioned on the reverse. The photograph depicts a female torso on a classical pedestal in a narrow hallway. Light illuminates the form against deep architectural shadows, while the brush-applied emulsion creates an irregular, painterly border around the image.
Another print of this image is held in the permanent collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art, catalogued as Female Torso in Hallway, 1990, accession number 1999.42.40.

About the Artist
Robert Stivers is an internationally exhibited American fine-art photographer whose work is collected by major museums and prominent private collectors. Named collectors include Ellen DeGeneres, Charlize Theron, Olivia Wilde, Donna Karan, and Mark Wahlberg.

A former dancer and choreographer, Stivers turned to photography after a back injury ended his dance career. He studied with photographer Jo Ann Callis at UCLA in 1987 and began developing his photographic practice in earnest in 1988. This 1990 photograph comes from the formative years of that practice.
Stivers is known for theatrical compositions and meticulous darkroom craftsmanship, exploring sculpture, the human figure, architecture, and everyday objects. His later photographs frequently employ soft focus, motion blur, toning, and darkroom manipulation to create atmospheric, dreamlike imagery.

His photographs are held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; J. Paul Getty Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum; Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Center for Creative Photography; George Eastman Museum; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; and Victoria and Albert Museum, London, among others.
His gallery exhibition history includes Peter Fetterman Gallery and Fahey/Klein Gallery in the Los Angeles area; Modernism in San Francisco; Yancey Richardson Gallery and Throckmorton Fine Art in New York; Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago; and Obscura Gallery in Santa Fe. Museum presentations include Robert Stivers: Veiled Image at the Akron Art Museum and his inclusion in Dream States: Contemporary Photographs and Video at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
His work has received coverage in The New Yorker, The Village Voice, ARTnews, and the Los Angeles Times. Published monographs include Robert Stivers: Photographs, Listening to Cement, Sestina, Sanctum, The Art of Ruin, and Staging Pictures: Early Polaroids.

Artist: Robert Stivers (American, b. 1953)
Title: Untitled (Female Torso in Hallway)
Date: 1990
Medium: Gelatin silver print with hand-applied photographic emulsion
Edition: 3/20
Signature: Signed, titled, dated, and numbered on reverse
Visible image: 10.25 × 10.25 inches
Sheet: 22 x 18 inches
Framed: 27.5 x 24.25 inches See less