Alice Burr

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Alice Burr (American, 1883-1968) was a San Francisco-based photographer associated with the Pictorialist movement.

Pictorialism photography movement

Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer has somehow manipulated what would otherwise be a straightforward photograph as a means of "creating" an image rather than simply recording it. Typically, a pictorial photograph appears to lack a sharp focus, is printed in one or more colors other than black-and-white and may have visible brush strokes or other manipulation of the surface. For the pictorialist, a photograph, like a painting, drawing or engraving, was a way of projecting an emotional intent into the viewer's realm of imagination.

Contents

Early life and education

In 1916, Burr studied at The Clarence H. White School of Photography in New York with White himself, whose 30-week course of study emphasized personal vision and style over any particular school or movement. [1] Burr also attended the California School of Design, where she studied a range of studio arts, including painting, drawing, and printmaking, but it is not known whether she pursued this training prior to her course of study in New York. [2]

Clarence Hudson White American photographer

Clarence Hudson White was an American photographer, teacher and a founding member of the Photo-Secession movement. He grew up in small towns in Ohio, where his primary influences were his family and the social life of rural America. After visiting the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, he took up photography. Although he was completely self-taught in the medium, within a few years he was internationally known for his pictorial photographs that captured the spirit and sentimentality of America in the early twentieth century. As he became well known for his images, White was sought out by other photographers who often traveled to Ohio to learn from him. He became friends with Alfred Stieglitz and helped advance the cause of photography as a true art form. In 1906 White and his family moved to New York City in order to be closer to Stieglitz and his circle and to further promote his own work. While there he became interested in teaching photography and in 1914 he established the Clarence H. White School of Photography, the first educational institution in America to teach photography as art. Due to the demands of his teaching duties, his own photography declined and White produced little new work during the last decade of his life. In 1925 he suffered a heart attack and died while teaching students in Mexico City.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Burr, her youngest sister Marian, and two female cousins traveled extensively across Europe, Asia, African continents and to Australia and Japan together. [3]

She lived in the Burr family home on Vallejo Street in San Francisco until her death. Her studio, an Arts and Crafts-style structure built in 1916 solely for her use, was located on an adjacent property. [4]

Arts and Crafts movement international design movement

The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that began in Britain and flourished in Europe and America between about 1880 and 1920, emerging in Japan in the 1920s as the Mingei movement. It stood for traditional craftsmanship using simple forms, and often used medieval, romantic, or folk styles of decoration. It advocated economic and social reform and was essentially anti-industrial. It had a strong influence on the arts in Europe until it was displaced by Modernism in the 1930s, and its influence continued among craft makers, designers, and town planners long afterwards.

Work

Burr primarily made portraits and images of nature, and additionally captured scenes around San Francisco and during her many travels abroad. In her home studio, she experimented with the bromoil and autochrome processes. [3]

Autochrome Lumière early color photography process

The Autochrome Lumière is an early color photography process patented in 1903 by the Lumière brothers in France and first marketed in 1907. It was the principal color photography process in use before the advent of subtractive color film in the mid-1930s. Prior to the Lumiere brothers, Louis Ducos du Hauron utilized the separation technique to create colour images on paper with screen plates, producing natural colours through superimposition, which would become the foundation of all commercial colour photography. Descendents of photographer Antoine Lumiere, inventors Louis and Auguste Lumiere utilized Du Hauron's (1869) technique, which had already been improved upon by other inventors such as John Joly (1894) and James William McDonough (1896), making it possible to print photographic images in colour. The most broadly used form of colour photography in the early twentieth century, autochrome was cherished for its aesthetic appeal and uniqueness, which have also become its most recognizable characteristics.

Recognition

In her application to join the San Francisco Society of Women Artists (founded 1877), one of the oldest arts organizations in California, Burr noted that she had exhibited student work at the De Young Museum and at the San Diego Museum of Art. [2]

San Diego Museum of Art Art Museum in California, US

The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located at 1450 El Prado in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed its name to the San Diego Museum of Art in 1978. The official Balboa Park website calls the San Diego Museum of Art "the region's oldest and largest art museum". Nearly half a million people visit the museum each year.

In 1927, Burr was elected president of the California League of Women Voters. [2]

Burr's accomplishments as a photographer were examined in the 1998 exhibition Alice Burr: A California Pictorialist Rediscovered held at the Davison Art Center at Wesleyan University, curated by Thomas Weston Fels with support from Jeanne Slate Overstreet and her late husband Alan Burr Overstreet, the artist's nephew. [5] The exhibition, which traveled to the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery at University of Maryland (2001), California Historical Society (2005) and Santa Barbara Museum of Art (2006), was accompanied by a catalog. [6]

Collections

Burr's work is held in the following permanent collections:

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References

  1. ↑ Yochelson, Bonnie. "The Clarence H. White School of Photography" (PDF).
  2. 1 2 3 Fels, Thomas Weston (1998). Alice Burr, Photographer: A California Pictorialist Rediscovered. Dalton, Massachusetts: The Studley Press.
  3. 1 2 3 "Finding aid to the Burr-Allyne family papers and photographs, Online Archive of California" (PDF).
  4. ↑ "Burr House National Register of Historic Places Registration Form" (PDF).
  5. ↑ "Alice Burr - Past Exhibition (Early Fall 1998) - DAC - Wesleyan University". www.wesleyan.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  6. ↑ "Thomas Weston Fels Papers, Finding Aid at Five Colleges Archives & Manuscripts Collection".
  7. ↑ "Clark Art - Canal in Venice". clarkart.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-28.
  8. ↑ "Alice Burr". FAMSF Explore the Art. 2015-05-08. Retrieved 2018-02-28.
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