WILLIAM CLIFT (1944-), COUNTY COURTHOUSES PORTFOLIO, 1976 six gelatin silver prints in a clamshell box; 16 x 13 in. (image), 27 x 22 in. (mount), 27 x 22 (overmatted); edition 3/60 from ed. of 60 + 5 A/Ps; each print signed and mounted; Condition: Excellent. Commissioned and published by Joseph E. Seagram & Sons to mark the Bicentennial of the United States. Seagram commissioned Clift to record American county courthouses. WCL-0015

Includes: I Knox County Courthouse, Vincennes, Indiana; II Rotunda, Old St. Louis County Courthouse, St. Louis, Missouri; III Reflection, Old St. Louis County Courthouse, St. Louis, Missouri; IV Law Books, Hinsdale County Courthouse, Lake City, Colorado; V Judge’s Bench, Old Cochise County Courthouse, Tombstone, Arizona; VI Jury Chairs, Warrant County Courthouse, Warrenton, Missouri.

CONDITION: For a comprehensive condition report, please email info@ethertongallery.com.

Frames when illustrated, are for reference ONLY and are NOT included with the lot. Please note that the color and tonality of digital references may vary. Titles, dates, details and descriptions are for guidance only and are subject to change.

WILLIAM CLIFT

William Clift American, 1944- Throughout his career, William Brooks Clift III has photographed the land and architecture as quiet yet complex subjects filled with cultural and spiritual metaphor. Celebrating the nuances of light and composition in his images, which are primarily black and white, he is a careful and thoughtful technician. He digests, rather than dramatizes, his subjects, often spending several years exploring a theme before completing it. Born in Boston, Clift first took an interest in photography at age 10, building his own darkroom. As a teenager, he attended a workshop with Paul Caponigro. Beginning in 1962, Clift spent eight years specializing in architectural subjects, commissioned on a freelance basis by various organizations -- including the Massachusetts Council on the Arts for an extensive documentation of Old Boston City Hall (1970). He moved to Santa Fe in 1971 and began to photograph the landscape that continues to inspire his work. He has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1972, 1979) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1973, 1980). Returning to Boston in 1975, Clift photographed the architecture of Beacon Hill. During 1975-76 he worked for the Joseph Seagram and Son's bicentennial project on American county courthouses. In 1977 he traveled to France to take pictures of Mont-Saint-Michel and began an ongoing project picturing the sculpture of Juan Hamilton. Commissions followed from AT&T for their American Images project (1978) and from the Reader's Digest Association (1985-86) to photograph the Hudson River Highlands with Steven Shore, who eventually discontinued the endeavor. A one-person exhibition of Clift's work, Certain Places, was on view at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth (1987). That same year he received the Governor's Award for Excellence and Achievement in the Arts in New Mexico and began a color project with Polaroid materials, making family pictures that were exhibited in the Equitable Gallery, New York (1992). He has produced and distributed two books, Certain Places (1987) and A Hudson Landscape (1994). Clift continues to photograph the mountain and desert landscape throughout the southwestern United States. He lives in Santa Fe. A.W.

©The Cleveland Art Museum

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1990.112

Excellent