**Originally Listed At $450**

William W. Fuller (American, b. 1948). "The Chicago Athletic Association - Chicago, Illinois" gelatin silver print, 1981. Signed on the lower right beneath photo. A striking photograph of the Chicago Athletic Association, an 1893 Venetian Gothic Revival landmark designed by architect Henry Ives Cobb during the Golden Age of Chicago architecture, by American photographer William W. Fuller. Fuller has been using his large format camera to shoot black and white photographs of American architecture for nearly 40 years. Inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's quote, "Architecture is frozen music," Fuller has always had an eye for the formalist qualities of American urban architecture, exploring form, sumptuous details, line, negative space, shape, as well as contrasting light and shadow, this modernist has aimed to create sharp, elegant compositions rather than documentary portrayals of these landmarks. Size: 7.625" L x 9.375" W (19.4 cm x 23.8 cm) Size of matte: 14.125" L x 17.125" W (35.9 cm x 43.5 cm)

Once a private athletic club, the Chicago Athletic Association became vacant and in danger of being demolished. However, in 2015, it reopened as a boutique hotel, and great care went into preserving the landmark's late 19th century architectural details. Nearly 35 years prior to this successful adaptive reuse project, Fuller took this photo and also paid homage to Cobb's impressive Venetian Gothic details and design.

This photograph was in the collection of pioneering patron of the arts, Ginny Williams. Sotheby's hosted a series of auctions featuring art and photography in the Ginny Williams Collection in June and July of 2020. Their press release began as follows, "Born in rural Virginia in 1927, Ginny moved to Denver, Colorado in the late 1950s with her husband, Carl Williams. An avid photographer herself, who studied with Austrian-American photojournalist and photographer Ernst Haas, her collecting journey began with classical figurative photography. Her passion and keen eye eventually prompted her to open her namesake gallery in Denver in the 1980s. While her passion for photography never waned, remaining a primary focus of both her gallery and private collection, her voracious curiosity quickly widened her curatorial focus. Over time, Ginny became increasingly courageous and experimental in her selections, venturing into Abstract Expressionism and Contemporary Art and following her artists themselves through gallery shows and museum exhibitions. As the years passed, Ginny became as much of a trailblazer as the artists she collected."

Provenance: ex-private Idledale, Colorado, USA collection; ex-Ginny Williams collection of Denver, Colorado

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#171302

Photo is in excellent condition and laid in a custom matte. Signed in pencil by the artist on lower right beneath photo. Ginny Williams Collection label is on the verso. Title, date, and artist's name and address are handwritten on the verso.