In this experimental short film, Steiner brings the viewer into near contact with waves foaming and receding through a series of sustained close-up shots. Though best known as a still photographer, he fully embraced the dynamic possibilities of his subject in this time-based medium. The result is a view of nature as pure pattern and texture: rippled striations of slick sand, dappled dots of sunlight on wet rock, and dense tangles of sluggish seaweed. “I was interested in seeing how much material could be gotten by trying to see water in a new way,” the artist said about a related film he made, called H20 (1929).
2023
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Nature Symbolized
Gallery 509Applying the formal techniques and stylistic features of European avant-gardes to distinctively homegrown subjects resulted in a fresh approach to modernism in which the natural environment appeared as central yet was often abstracted.
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