LONDON, ENGLAND.- The V&A is delighted to announce the gift of 23 Alfred Stieglitz photographs and photogravures from the Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation. The 23 works, taken from the 1890s through to 1936, consist of 10 portraits of O’Keeffe herself, 4 ’Equivalents’ (cloud images), two from the major poplar trees series and other earlier views of New York. The photographs will be exhibited in Alfred Stieglitz: Georgia O’Keeffe: Gifts from the Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation in the V&A’s photography gallery through March 14, 2004. 

The Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the artistic legacy of Georgia O’Keeffe. Stieglitz, one of America’s most influential photographers, was known internationally as an advocate of modernism. One of the principal objectives of the Foundation is to distribute paintings, photographs and other works of art to museums and institutions. The Foundation states that it is delighted to give the Stieglitz photographs to the Victoria and Albert Museum, a world-class institution recognised for its long and distinguished commitment to the art of photography.  

The V&A is Britain’s national museum of art and design and holds the national collection of the art of photography. The photography collection began in 1852 and now holds 300,000 images. It is one of the greatest collections of 19th and 20th century photographs in the world. Modern American photography is a prominent feature of the V&A’s collection. Over the past few years, the V&A has purchased seven Equivalents by Stieglitz plus a large photogravure print on Japanese vellum of The Steerage, a Stieglitz masterpiece taken in 1907. In addition, the V&A owns important works by members of the Stieglitz circle including Edward Steichen, Paul Strand and Eva Watson Schutze.  

Mark Haworth-Booth, the V&A’s Senior Curator of Photographs, says: “This is one of the most important donations ever made to the Museum’s photography collection since it began in 1852 and it is certainly the most significant gift of modern photographs.”