Location

not on view

Description

Born and raised in Texas, Rotan got a job working for a New York museum photographing artworks. His personal work emphasized the geometry, radical perspectives, and dramatic energy of the new New York. A 1932 essay on his work demonstrated American jingoism by praising Rotan’s photographs as "not the disordered jargon of photo-montage imported from decadent capitals abroad, but keen and sane assemblages singing a fresher song."

Inscriptions

Inscription

Written in pencil on verso: "New York Montage/Thurman Rotan 1928" Written in black ink on verso: "Rotan (signed)

Inscription

Stamped twice on verso of print: "PHOTOGRAPH BY Rotan"

Provenance

The artist, New York, NY

Keith De Lellis, New York, NY

Chester Dentan, Seattle, WA

Tuesday October 6, 1998

(Christie's, New York, NY, Oct. 6, 1998, no. 277, sold to David Raymond)

1998-2007

David Raymond [b.1979], New York, NY

2007-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E. Hinson, Ian Walker, and Lisa Kurzner. Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography : the David Raymond Collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art. 2014. Reproduced: p. 71, no. 38; reproduced and mentioned: p. 234.

Exhibition history

Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 19, 2014-January 11, 2015).

A New York Minute: Street Photography, 1920-1950. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-November 7, 2021).