Coastal Scene
Sonya Noskowiak, American (born Germany), 1905 - 1975
1940
Gelatin silver print
Image: 7 1/2 × 9 1/2 in. (19.1 × 24.1 cm)
Image: 7 1/2 × 9 7/16 in. (19.1 × 24 cm)
Mount: 14 × 18 in. (35.6 × 45.7 cm)
Mount: 14 × 18 in. (35.5 × 45.7 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Julia L. Whittier Fund
PH.999.48.1
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Inscriptions
Signed and dated, in graphite, on mount, lower right: Sonya Noskowiak 1940
Label
Lava brims and bursts into flame in this depiction of the Halema‘uma‘u crater at the summit of Kīlauea on Hawai‘i Island, lit only by the partially obscured moon and glowing rock itself. Dramatic views of the Kingdom of Hawa‘i’s natural wonders became hugely popular in the 1880s, especially among the growing class of wealthy American settlers and tourists. Below, the modernist California photographer Sonya Noskowiak similarly aestheticizes the destructive force of fire. Stumps and charred trunks cover the ground, the remnants of a once-dense forest leading down to a desolate Mendocino beach.
From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Course History
ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022
GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022
ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022
ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022
ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022
ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022
ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022
SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022
Exhibition History
This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5–April 18, 2022.
Provenance
Lee Gallery, Winchester, Massachusetts; sold to present collection, 1999.
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