WENDELL MACRAE, Rhythm Without Beat (Roxy Theatre, NY), 1932, 6.5x4.75" Gelatin silver print, Printed c. 1932, Signed and titled in pencil on mount recto below print. Signed, titled, and dated in pencil on mount recto; copyright statement and 1980 date inscribed in pencil.

This vintage print was made around the time that MacRae's work was being exhibited at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. Later in life, he also exhibited at the Witkin Gallery.

Wendell Scott MacRae (1896-1980) studied at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and in 1920 at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. In 1924 he went to work for the research department of Paramount Studios in Astoria, Long Island City, New York, and by 1927 MacRae moved to Hollywood, California, to find work in motion pictures. In 1928 he returned to New York, taking a position with Ewing Galloway, a photo agency. MacRae started his own photography business in 1930, which he operated until 1949. From 1949 to 1960, MacRae was a publications production manager for Pennsylvania State University, and from 1960 to 1965 he worked for the university as historical collection curator.

After a 1932 exhibition of his early Modernist work at the pioneering Julien Levy Gallery on Madison Avenue, MacRae was hired in 1934 to record the construction of Rockefeller Center, where he was also provided studio space. It is this bold, modernist work for which he is best recognized. But his creativity went beyond documenting the Rockefeller Center complex, as he explored more experimental techniques, including photomontage and collage. The 1936 Surrealism show organized by Alfred Barr at the Museum of Modern Art provided a major stimulus for him.

In 1977 the Witkin Gallery exhibited MacRae's work from the collection of Julien Levy and later, in 1999, Witkin Gallery marked its 30th anniversary with a show of sixty-nine of MacRae's vintage prints. Reviewing that show for The New York Times, Margaret Loke wrote, "Like many of his contemporaries of the late 1920's and early 30's the photographer Wendell MacRae saw a hushed beauty in machinery and lovely geometries in sunlight and shadow on Manhattan skyscraper facades. Unlike such artists as Margaret Bourke-White or Ralph Steiner, MacRae didn't seem as intent on showing the majestically or coldly beautiful. Instead, in his elegant photographs, whether they're of hand tools or factories or cityscapes, he seldom lost sight of a gentle human component."

CREDIT: Laurence Miller Gallery http://www.laurencemillergallery.com/artists/wendell-macrae

Very good. Minor wear.