Galleries > An American Place

An American Place

1929–1946
Room 1710, 509 Madison Avenue

At his last gallery, An American Place, Stieglitz welcomed a stream of visitors who wanted to meet a living legend of the New York art scene. The gallery also became a mecca for young artists; photographer Ansel Adams wrote that “The Place, and all that goes on within it is like coming across a deep pool of clear water in the desert. . . . Whoever drinks from this pool will never be thirsty.”[1]

 

The gallery was on the seventeenth floor of a newly constructed skyscraper on Madison Avenue, and it was relatively spacious—six rooms, three for exhibition and three for storage, all painted a light, pearl gray—compared with Stieglitz’s previous galleries. Stieglitz posted the gallery’s austere mission on a card in the space:

 

No formal press views

No cocktail parties

No special invitations

No advertising

No institutions

No isms

No theories

No game being played

Nothing asked of anyone who comes

No anything on the walls except what you see there

The doors of An American Place are ever open to all.[2]

 

Stieglitz continued to support the American artists he had promoted at an Intimate Gallery, hosting annual exhibitions of works by Arthur Dove, John Marin, and Georgia O’Keeffe, as well as occasional shows of Marsden Hartley and Charles Demuth. The photography exhibited was limited to the work of Stieglitz himself, Paul Strand, and the younger photographers Adams and Eliot Porter. Stieglitz’s business practices were as enigmatic as ever, as he maintained his policy of selling only to those he thought deserving of the work in question and paying artists the amount he saw fit.

 

It was at An American Place that Stieglitz was able to reflect on his earlier successes. In 1939, with the help of Dorothy Norman, he installed an exhibition, 291: Beginnings and Landmarks, that looked at the breadth of groundbreaking work shown at 291. This was arguably one of the first examinations of what would come to be known as The Stieglitz Collection.

 

 

[1] Ansel Adams to Alfred Stieglitz, Nov. 29, 1936, quoted in Andrea Gray, Ansel Adams: An American Place, 1936 (Little, Brown, 1982) p. 35.

[2] Reproduced in Dorothy Norman, Alfred Stieglitz: An American Seer (Aperture, 1973), p. 205.

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AIC_1949-662_T
Ansel Adams

Architecture, Early California Cemetery, 1932/36, printed 1936

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AIC_1949-659_T
Ansel Adams

Windmill, 1932

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AIC_1949-660_T
Ansel Adams

Autumn, Yosemite Valley, c. 1933, printed 1936

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AIC_1949-661_T
Ansel Adams

Grass and Burned Wood, 1935

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AIC_1949-681_T
David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson

Lord Cockburn at Bonaly, 1846/47

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AIC_1949-687_T
David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson

Mrs. Anna Brownell Jameson, 1844

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AIC_1949-688_T
Eliot Porter

Jonathan, 1938

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aic_1949-689_t
Alfred Stieglitz

An Icy Night, New York, 1898

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AIC_1949-692_T
Alfred Stieglitz

November Days, 1887, printed 1920/39

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AIC_1949-698_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Sun Rays—Paula, Berlin, 1889, printed 1920/39

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AIC_1949-700_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Stones of Venice, Chioggia, 1887, printed 1920/39

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AIC_1949-704_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Outward Bound, The Mauretania, 1910, printed 1918/32

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AIC_1949-705_T
Alfred Stieglitz

The Steerage, 1907, printed 1920/39

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AIC_1949-706_T
Alfred Stieglitz

The Terminal, 1893, printed 1920/39

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AIC_1949-722_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Waldo Frank, 1920

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AIC_1949-724_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Sherwood Anderson, 1923

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AIC_1949-726_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Sherwood Anderson, 1923

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AIC_1949-727_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Sherwood Anderson, 1923

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AIC_1949-729_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Poplars—Lake George, 1935

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AIC_1949-730_T
Alfred Stieglitz

The Old Maple—Lake George, 1926

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AIC_1949-736_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Rebecca Salsbury Strand, 1922

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AIC_1949-739_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Dualities – Dorothy Norman, 1932

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Alfred Stieglitz

Dorothy Norman, c. 1931

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AIC_1949-741_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Dorothy Norman, 1930

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AIC_1949-745A_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Georgia O’Keeffe, 1918

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AIC_1949-755_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Georgia O’Keeffe, 1918

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AIC_1949-759_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Georgia O’Keeffe, 1918

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AIC_1949-764_T
Alfred Stieglitz

House and Grape Leaves, 1934

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AIC_1949-768_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Grass and Frost, 1934

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AIC_1949-771_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Door to Kitchen, Lake George, 1934

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AIC_1949-772_T
Alfred Stieglitz

The Dancing Trees, 1922

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AIC_1949-773_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Poplars—Lake George, 1932

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Alfred Stieglitz

Grass and Flagpole, 1933

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AIC_1949-778_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Grass, 1933

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AIC_1949-780_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Hedge and Grasses – Lake George, 1933

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aic_1949-781_t
Alfred Stieglitz

The Dying Chestnut Tree—My Teacher, 1927

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aic_1949-783_t
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at the Shelton, West, 1931

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aic_1949-785_t
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at An American Place, Southwest, 1932

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aic_1949-787_t
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at An American Place, North, 1930/31

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aic_1949-788_t
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at An American Place, North, 1931

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aic_1949-789_t
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at An American Place, North, 1931

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AIC_1949-790_T
Alfred Stieglitz

From My Window at An American Place, Southwest, 1932

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AIC_1949-792_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1931

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AIC_1949-796_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1930

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AIC_1949-805_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1926

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AIC_1949-806_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1930

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AIC_1949-810_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, 1927

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AIC_1949-815_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set A (Third Set, Print 3), 1929

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AIC_1949-818_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Equivalent, from Set A (Third Set, Print 7), 1929

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AIC_1949-825_T
Edward Steichen

Rodin, Le Penseur, 1902

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AIC_1949-831_T
Frank Eugene

The Horse, c. 1900

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AIC_1949-838_T
Alfred Stieglitz

The Flatiron, 1903

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AIC_1949-839_T
Alfred Stieglitz

The Street, Fifth Avenue, 1900/01

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AIC_1949-843_T
Alfred Stieglitz

Outward Bound, The Mauretania, 1910

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AIC_1949-847_T
Alfred Stieglitz

The Steerage, 1907, printed 1915

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AIC_1949-848_T
Alfred Stieglitz

The Terminal, 1893

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AIC_1949-850_T
Alfred Stieglitz

The Hand of Man, 1902

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AIC_1949-856_T
Clarence H. White

Girl with Muff, 1906

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AIC_1949-862_T
Gertrude Käsebier

Alfred Stieglitz, 1902, printed 1906

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