Ralston Crawford

1906 Canada, 1978

Hijo de un capitán de barco, la vida de Ralston Crawford y su carrera estuvo marcada por la pasión por los viajes. Trabajó en varios empleos antes de convertirse en marinero, desde 1926 hasta 1927. Después de estudiar arte en Los Angeles, tuvo un breve trabajo como ilustrador en el estudio de Walt Disney. Crawford pasó la siguiente década viajando extensamente para estudiar arte, en contrandose con un éxito inmediato en la primera exposición de su trabajo. Su estilo se describe como precisionismo, un estilo muy popular en los años 1920 y 1930 y se caracteriza por la representación de formas muy definidas.

Crawford se aficionó a la fotografía alrededor de 1937 y continuó con la fotografía durante sus viajes, haciendo el mismo tipo de imágenes fuertemente centradas lo mismo que hizo en sus pinturas. En 1950 comenzó a fotografiar y documentar la vida de los músicos de jazz negros en Nueva Orleans, Louisiana, un tema y una ciudad a la que con frecuencia volvería. Además desempeñó varios cargos en la enseñanza a lo largo de su carrera, desde Honolulu a Buffalo. En 1969, estrenó el primero de varios cortometrajes,Various Depths . Un hombre enérgico a pesar de la aparición del cáncer descubierto en 1971, Crawford continuó viajando extensivamente y siguió creaando hasta su muerte a la edad de setenta y un años.

GUETTY MUSEUM

Ralston Crawford

September 5, 1906 – April 27, 1978) was an American abstract painter, lithographer, and photographer.

He was born in Canada, at St. Catharines, Ontario, and spent his childhood in Buffalo, New York. He studied art beginning in 1927 in California at the Otis Art Institute. After working at the Walt Disney Studio, he returned to the eastern U.S. for further study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and at the Barnes Foundation, where he was exposed to the art of Picasso and Matisse. In 1934, he had his first one-man showing at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Crawford was best known for his abstract representations of urban life and industry. His early work placed him with Precisionist artists like Niles Spencer and Charles Sheeler. Here, the focus was on realistic, sharp portrayals of factories, bridges, and shipyards. Later work was geometrically abstract. In Spain, he observed bullfighting, and the religious procession during Holy Week in Seville. In New Orleans, he painted and photographed cemeteries and jazz musicians (requiring a permit to visit bars normally restricted to blacks). Fortune magazine sent Crawford to the Bikini Atoll in 1946 to record a nuclear weapon test. During his abstract period, he said, "I don't feel obligated to reveal the forms. They may be totally absent to the viewer of the work, or even to myself, but what is there, however abstract, grows out of something I have seen. I make pictures."

In 1978, Crawford succumbed to cancer in Houston, Texas, survived by a wife and three children. At that time, his works were included in the public collections of the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Toledo Museum of Art.