Aaron Siskind: The Egan Gallery Years, 1947-1954

Aaron Siskind... Chicago 30, 1949 (Silver Print). From the exhibition Aaron Siskind: The Egan Gallery Years, 1947-1954 at Robert Mann Gallery. "...At the recommendation of his friend Barnett Newman, photographer Aaron Siskind paid a visit to art dealer Charles Egan, one of the few gallerists in New York devoted to contemporary art at the time. The result was four exhibitions at the Egan Gallery. Siskind's photography had begun moving away from social documentary, flattening the picture plane as everyday objects moved into abstraction. Placing Siskind in an exhibition program that included Robert Rauschenberg and provided the first American venue for Willem de Kooning, Egan recognized the importance of the photographer's work in the contemporary discourse of visual arts. From a 1948 press release: 'Mr. Siskind's discernment of the poetic in the casual and passed-by aspects of every day reality are rich in their eloquence of line and shape and take their place with serious expression of the modern American artists.'"