Berenice Abbott American, 1898-1991

Born in 1898 in Springfield, Ohio, USA

Died in 1991 in Monson, Maine, USA

1898       

Birth of Berenice Abbott in Springfield, Ohio, on 17 July.

1917       

Studies to be a journalist at Ohio State University.

1918       

Leaves for New York City and moves in artistic circles.

1921       

Sails to Europe. Studies sculpture in Paris and Berlin and frequents the Surrealist avant-garde.

1923       

Hired by Man Ray in his Parisian portrait studio. In addition to making prints, starts to take her own portraits.

1926       

Opens her own studio. Photographs the bourgeoisie and artists. First exhibition at the gallery Au Sacre du Printemps. Art critics take note. Meets Euge?ne Atget and buys several prints.

1928       

Buys part of the estate of Atget, who died in 1927. Exhibits at the Salon de l'Escalier, a manifesto against Pictorialism.

1929       

Shows in two German modernist exhibitions: "Fotografie der Gegenwart" (Essen) and "Film und Foto" (Stuttgart).
Returns to New York City. Opens a portrait studio and starts photographing the City.

1930       

Exhibits at the Weyhe Gallery. Publishes the book Atget photographe de Paris. Takes part in "Photography" at Harvard University, the first American show to break with tradition and also with the circle of Alfred Stieglitz.

1931       

Seeks institutions to finance her big project on New York City.

1932       

Exhibitions: "Photographs of New York by New York Photographers", "Photographs by Berenice Abbott" and "Exhibition of Portrait Photography" at the Julien Levy Gallery and "Murals by American Painters and Photographers" at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

1934?35

Photographs Victorian architecture in East Coast cities. Exhibitions: "American Cities Before the Civil War" (Yale University) and "The Architecture of Henry Hobson Richardson and His Times" (MoMA).

1934       

Exhibits photographs about New York City at the Museum of the City of New York with the hope of finding sponsors for her project.

1935       

Changing New York is supported by the Federal Art Project, a government programme to aid artists. Abbott takes over 300 photographs.

1935-58

Teaches photography at the New School for Social Research.

1937       

Exhibition of images of New York City at the Museum of the City of New York.

1939       

Publication of the book Changing New York.

1941       

Publication of Guide to Better Photography.

1944-45

Artistic Director of Science Illustrated. Develops the super-sight technique which produces 40 x 50 cm (16 x 20 inch) negatives.

1954       

Travels along Route 1 to photograph towns on the East Coast.

1958-61

Hired by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to illustrate the physical principles of light, speed and magnetism.

1960       

Exhibition, "Image of Physics" is organised by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

1964       

Publication of The World of Atget, Magnet and Motion.

1968      

The Museum of Modern Art acquires Abbott and Levy's portion of the Atget estate.

1991       

Death of Berenice Abbott in Monson, Maine, on 9 December. 

SOLO SHOWS (SELECTION)

2019      Berenice Abbott : Portraits of modernity, foundation MAPFRE, Barcelona, Spain

2018-19 Berenice Abbott, Topographies, Musée de la photographie Charles Nègre, Nice, France

2017-18  Berenice Abbot, Topographie, Kutxa Kultur Artegunea, San Sebastian, Spain

2017        Berenice Abbott, Topographie, Museo d'arte della provincia di Nuoro, Italy

2016        Berenice Abbott Photographs, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany 

2015        Berenice Abbott, Beetles+Huxley, London, England

2014        Berenice Abbott, The City in Transition, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, NY, USA 

2013-14  Berenice Abbott, Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italy 

2012        Berenice Abbott, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France

                  Berenice Abbott, AGO Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada

2011         Berenice Abbott, Portraits MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA, USA 

                  Berenice Abbott, Charles A. Hartman Fine Art, Portland, OR, USA 

2008       Berenice Abbott, Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

                  Berenice Abbott, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA 

2006        Berenice Abbott, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, NY, USA 

2004-05 Berenice Abbott, HackelBury Fine Art Limited, London, UK

2004        Berenice Abbott, Changing New York Stadtmuseum Berlin, Germany 

1998         Changing New York. Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY, USA 

1997         Tower Gallery, Yokahama, Japan

1996         Retrospective. International Center of Photography, New York, NY, USA 

1994         FNAC Galleries Photo, Paris, France

1990        Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C, USA 

1989        New York Public Library, New York, NY, USA 

1988        Ansel Adams and Berenice Abbott: Photographs. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN, USA

1986        Retrospective. Ikona Gallery of Art, Venice, Italy

                  Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX, USA 

1985        Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MA, USA  

1982        Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C, USA 

                  Images of America: Precisionist Painting and Modern Photography. San 

                  Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, USA 

1981          International Center of Photography, New York, NY, USA 

1980         New Gallery of Contemporary Art, New York, NY, USA

1970        Retrospective. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA 

1968        A Portrait of Maine. E.G. Valens

1962        George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, USA 

1960        Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C, USA  

1959        New School for Social Research, New York, NY, USA 

1957        Limelight Gallery, New York, NY, USA

1953        San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, USA 

1951        Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

1937       Changing New York, The Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY, USA 

1935        Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA 

1930        The Contemporary Art Club, Harvard, MA, USA 

GROUP SHOWS (RECENT SELECTION FROM 2010 TO DATE) 

2019        Luogo e segni, Venice Biennale, Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy 

                  De l’archive à l’histoire, Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France

                  Science-fictions, centre photographique, Rouen, France

2017         L’Ombre de L’angle, CAUE92 – La Galerie, Nanterre, France 

2016        Berenice Abbott – Vivian Maier, Les Douches La Galerie, Paris, France

                  The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection, Tate

                  Modern, London, England

2015         The Modern Eye: Photographs 1917-1939, Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, NY,

                   USA                   

                 Modern Photographs from the Thomas Walther Collection, 1909-49, MoMA - The

                 Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA 

                 Photo London, Les Douches La Galerie, Paris, France

                 New York, Les Douches La Galerie, Paris, France

2014        A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio, MoMA - The Museum of

                  Modern Art, New York, NY, USA 

2013-14  A Democracy of Images, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC,

                  USA 

2013        Howard Greenberg – Collection, Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland 

                  Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography, MoMA - The Museum of

                  Modern Art, New York, NY

                  Scenes from the South 1936 – 2012, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, NY,

                  USA 

2012-13  In the Holocene, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA, USA 

                   Imagining the Modern Self, Los Angeles County Museum of Art /LACMA, Los

                   Angeles, CA, USA

2012        The Shaping of New Visions: Photography, Film, Photobook Museum of Modern

                  Art, New York, NY, USA 

                  Landschaft als Weltsicht, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany     

                  New York Photography 1890-1950, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, Germany

                  Der Mensch und seine Objekte, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany

                  Corporations Are People Too, Winkleman Gallery, New York, NY, USA 

                  Making Faces: Photographic Portraits of Actors and Artists, Portland Museum of

                  Art, ME, USA

2011-12   The Radical Camera: New York's Photo League, 1936-1951, Jewish Museum, New 

                  York, NY, USA 

                   HIDE/SEEK: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, Brooklyn, Museum

                   of Art, Brooklyn, NY, USA 

                   The Unseen Eye, International Museum of Photography and Film George

                   Eastman House, Rochester, NY, USA 

2011          Public Works, Columbia College Chicago, MoCP The Museum of Contemporary

                   Photography, Chicago, IL, USA 

                  American Modern : Abbott, Evans, Bourke-White, The Art Institute of Chicago,

                  Chicago, IL, USA

2010-11    Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography Museum of Modern Art,

                   New York, NY, USA

                   Luminous Cities, NGV National Gallery of Victoria International, Melbourne,

                   Australia 

2010         Weltsichten - Schwerpunkt 20. Jahrhundert Kunstsammlungen der Ruhr-

                   Universität Bochum, Germany 

                   Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography, MoMA - The Museum of

                  Modern Art, New York, NY, USA 

                 The Original Copy - Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today Museum of Modern

                 Art, New York, NY, USA 

                 Realismus - das Abenteuer der Wirklichkeit. Courbet - Hopper – Gursky,

                 Kunsthalle Emden, Germany

                 La photographie n'est pas l'art, collection Sylvio Perlstein, MAMCS Musée d'art

                 moderne et contemporain,Strasbourg, France

                  Working Shifts: Photography from the Collection, Queens Museum of Art,

                  Queens, NY, USA 

2009-10     Picturing New York Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland 

                      Edward Hopper and His Time Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands 

                      Film und Foto: Eine Hommage Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany