Connell will 1898 1961 (1 Ergebnisse)

Six original photographic prints by Will Connell, the pioneering surrealist photographer from California. Each print is between 16-19x23-29.5 cm. All are mounted on 35x46 cm board. These 6 images are large prints, one of which the edges are damaged. Each is signed in pencil, "Will Connell 35". Dated 1935-36, presumedly belonging to an active period when he would have taken commission work, though it is possible that this is a student's work in sculpting. None of the 6 prints are titled. The sculptures are 5 in wood (each dated 1935), 1 in stone (dated 1936). The topics/titles could be applied as: (measurements follow). 1) head of a young woman, small jaw, large curly hair (wood). [19x24 cm]. 2) head of a young man, some leafy plant showing in the background, the youth with seemingly fiery hair, the head looking left (wood). [19x23 cm]. 3) panel with 3 heads, stylized, each appears to be singing, all with the same wide mouths, the hair as if it were also the wind (wood). [16x29.5 cm]. 4) Stylized â" undetermined nature â" could be a bird, or a porpoise, a flower (wood). [17.5x24 cm]. 5) female nude, showing the rear side, the legs extending beyond the stone itself and cuts off just above the waistline. (stone, 1936). [19x24 cm]. 6) Asian masked actor (wood). [18.5x23.5 cm]. William ("Will") Connell was a self-taught American portrait and industrial photographer. / These seem to be unrecorded photographic prints from his canon of work in California. I have found no other copies, and it would seem, based on the content â" that these could have been private commission images of a sculptor. "Bene" Bufano's name was suggested â" a possibility â" but there is no evidence that I can see that we worked in wood. The style is similar, and the period also suggests the possibility, but Connell should have been in touch with many artists and designers during his time in both San Francisco and Los Angeles (Pasadena). I should add that the provenance of this group suggests it would be a person from Pasadena, as the prints were in a collection in that same city. / Connell taught himself photography and later opened a studio in downtown Los Angeles. By the late 1920s, he began to work in commercial photography for publications, such as Life, Sunset, Time, U.S. Camera and Vogue. / By the early 1930s, Connell was working primarily as a glamor and publicity photographer for various motion picture studios, including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Republic Studios. During this time he also frequently photographed Los Angeles area landscape. Connell was a close friend of Lloyd Wright the LA Architect and son of Frank Lloyd Wright and documented much of Lloyd Wright's work in the 1930s and 1940s. / Connell was born in 1898 in McPherson, Kansas; came with mother to California, and attended Los Angeles High School; left in the tenth grade to enlist in the army, but World War I had ended; became a pharmacist; in the 1920s taught himself photography, and opened a studio in downtown Los Angeles in 1925; became a member of the Camera Pictorialists along with Edward Weston, Louis Fleckenstein, and others; taught at Art Center College in Pasadena from 1931 until his death; work also included movie publicity shots, magazine assignments and other commercial photography; was one of the first photojournalists, illustrating numerous articles for Colliers and The Saturday Evening Post; wrote long-running column in U.S. Camera called 'Counsel' by Connell; produced three photography books: In Pictures (1931), The Missions of California (1941), and About Photography (1949); he died in 1961.Will Connell was born in McPherson, Kansas in 1898. / His father, a cowpuncher, kept moving the family westward and ultimately left them in Portland, Oregon. Mrs. Connell, a school teacher, relocated to Los Angeles where Will, an only child, went to Los Angeles High School. In 10th grade, Will dropped out of school to join the Army, but World War I came to an end and spoiled his plans.…