Grass and Flagpole

1932

A forty-year retrospective of 127 works

In 1932 Stieglitz mounted a forty-year retrospective of 127 of his works at An American Place. Next to his portraits of his young lover Dorothy Norman he deliberately hung recent photographs of O'Keeffe, who looked older than her forty-five years, one of the few times he acted spitefully towards her in public, perhaps a result of their arguments about his control over her art.

1932

Break with Paul Strand

Later in 1932 Stieglitz showed O'Keeffe's works next to amateurish paintings on glass by Rebecca Salsbury and published no catalogue, which the Strands took as an insult. Paul Strand never forgave him: the day he walked out of An American Place in 1932, he said, was no less good than the day he walked into 291 in 1907.

1934

Credo: “straight” photography without tricks

In 1934 Stieglitz explained: “Personally I like my photography straight, unmanipulated, devoid of all tricks; a print not looking like anything but a photograph, living through its own inherent qualities and revealing its own spirit.”