Photogram 1947

Ralston Crawford made this photogram, a photographic image made without a camera, at some point during his career. The items he chose to represent in pure white against the black background—a glove mold, a pencil, and a wadded piece of cellophane—speak volumes about American art education during the mid-20th century. Crawford studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he would have been trained to draw plaster casts of antique sculptures and encouraged to make studies of everyday objects. This image, though abstract, recalls the importance of the hand in artmaking and the kinds of materials that are used in art classrooms. It's also a commentary on the way that abstraction often draws inspiration from the real world. To understand Crawford's work better, we can explore the archives of art schools from the time, the writings of art critics such as Clement Greenberg, and the journals of artists themselves. With these resources, we can appreciate the social life of this seemingly simple image.