The Women of the Hispanic Society | Ruth Matilda Anderson скачать в хорошем качестве

The Women of the Hispanic Society | Ruth Matilda Anderson

This year, the Hispanic Society will highlight the female artists, curators, researchers, librarians and writers who have been a part of the Museum & Library throughout its 117-year history with the series of videos, The Women of the Hispanic Society. Join us each month for an in-depth look at the life and work of one of these women. This month we pay tribute to Hispanic Society Photographer and Curator Ruth Matilda Anderson (1893-1983). Among the treasures of the Hispanic Society’s photography collection, perhaps none stands out as much as the 14,000 photographs that Ruth Matilda Anderson took of Spain, Portugal, and Morocco in the 1920s. Considered as a whole, these vivid pictures offer a striking record of how people lived then.   Born in Nebraska, Anderson received her first instruction in photography from her father, Alfred Theodore Anderson, who ran a studio in Kearney specializing in views and portraits. After going to college in Nebraska, she moved to New York City where she attended the Clarence H. White School for Photography from which she received a diploma in 1919. Two years after Anderson graduated from White’s school, The Hispanic Society of America hired her. She was working as an interior decorator when the secretary from the Clarence H. White School called to tell her that the Hispanic Society was looking for a photographer and Clarence White had recommended her. The museum immediately impressed her with its vision and daring as it seemed to capture the spirit of Spain. No less imposing was the man who guided it, Archer M. Huntington. As she recalled that first interview, he was tall with “amused but keen eyes.” He demanded excellence and hard work while admitting that it was all something of an experiment. Apparently, she satisfied him because he wondered if she could start the next day. Instead, they agreed she would begin the following week. Anderson recorded a “timeless” Spain found principally in small towns and rural regions. There she concentrated on old buildings, local industries, and the community’s public life, generally at festivals or religious rites. Significantly she limited herself to those aspects of the individual’s life carried out in public such as collecting water at a well, whitewashing a house, or the exercise of a profession. Stylistically, her pictures present these daily events with a straightforward tranquility while also suggesting an effortless naturalism. As she traveled through Galicia, Asturias, Extremadura and León, she created a vivid image of Spain, filled with the people who had gladly stopped what they were doing to explain their trades and customs to her. Today her work offers an invaluable resource for all who wish to learn about the country at this time.   When in 1930 Anderson returned from the last of her photographic expeditions, her career at the museum shifted yet again. She now focused on the study of Spanish costume and published several books and articles on the subject. In 1954 she was named Curator of Costume at the Hispanic Society, a post she held until her retirement, almost thirty years later. As important as her research in costume is, today, however, we recognize the appeal of her photographs. When Anderson traveled into the heart of Spain to find her subjects, she was following the instructions of Huntington, a fact which makes her work such a key reflection of the Hispanic Society’s goals as he understood them. Huntington knew the major cities of his time and spent extended periods in Madrid and Seville, yet he believed that the “real Spain” existed outside of its urban centers. In fact, he developed a profound admiration for the rural regions which he visited. For him they evinced a genuine image that differed sharply from that formed by most tourists who saw only the sentimentalized or cliched features of the country. And this was what he wanted the photography collection to record. ___ Visit our website: www.hispanicsociety.org Our History: https://hispanicsociety.org/about-us/... Become a Friend: https://hispanicsociety.org/support_u... Follow us: Instagram:   / hispanic_society   Facebook:   / hispanicsociety​   Twitter:   / hsamuseum​