Object Details
Artist
Paul R. Meltsner, 1905 - 26 Nov 1966
Sitter
Martha Graham, 11 May 1894 - 1 Apr 1991
Exhibition Label
Born Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Considered the mother of modern dance in America, Martha Graham brought dance into the vortex of the machine age: the idea of motion was a fundamental tenet of modernism, and Graham was determined to extract dance from its balletic—and European—classicism and infuse it with “significant movement, . . . with excitement and surge.” She studied at Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn’s Denishawn School from 1916 to 1923 and then worked at the Greenwich Village Follies, where she began to design and choreograph her own dances. By 1935 she had established the Martha Graham School for Contemporary Dance, and its first performance, “Frontier,” reflected her notion that “life today is nervous, sharp, and zigzag.” Graham continued to perform until she was seventy-six and created new ballets until her death.
Provenance
(Midtown Galleries, New York); purchased 1973 NPG
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Date
1938
Object number
NPG.73.41
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Painting
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Stretcher: 106.7 x 81.3 x 2.5cm (42 x 32 x 1")
Frame: 125.1 x 99.1 x 5.1cm (49 1/4 x 39 x 2")
See more items in
National Portrait Gallery Collection
Location
Currently not on view
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Topic
Interior\Performing Arts\Theatrical\Stage
Costume\Headgear\Veil
Equipment\Staff
Martha Graham: Female
Martha Graham: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Dance\Dancer
Martha Graham: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Dance\Choreographer
Martha Graham: Arts and Culture\Performing Arts\Dance\Dance instructor
Martha Graham: Civilian awards\Presidential Medal of Freedom
Portrait
Link to Original Record
Record ID
npg_NPG.73.41