Cyanotypes: Photography's Blue Period

January 16 - April 24, 2016Prints, Drawings and Photographs Gallery

Invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842, cyanotypes are photographs with a distinctive Prussian blue tonality produced by treating paper with an iron-salt solution. The treated paper can be developed using only the sun, which made cyanotypes a favored technique among amateur photographers through the turn of the twentieth century. Cyanotypes: Photography's Blue Periodwill trace the rise of these "blueprint photographs" beginning with the botanical photogenic drawings printed by Anna Atkins in the 1850s. The exhibition will also feature contemporary artists who have recently revived the process manipulating the medium to varied expressive effects.

Organized in collaboration with a seminar from Clark University, the exhibition will be presented with thematic emphasis on botanicals, landscape, abstraction, and portraiture—areas that dominated much of the production of cyanotypes in the early twentieth century and recur in contemporary work. Artists on display include nineteenth and twentieth-century photographers Henry Bosse, Edward Sheriff Curtis, and F. Holland Day, and contemporary artist Christian Marclay.

Sponsored in part by:

Select Images

Related Event

Cyanotypes: An Evening in Blue

February 18, 2016 6-8pm

Please join us as the Worcester Art Museum celebrates the publication of Cyanotypes: Photography's Blue Period, the catalogue associated with WAM's groundbreaking exhibition tracing the history of the cyanotype from the 1850s to the present.

From 6 to 7pm, tours will be offered by co-curators Nancy Burns (Assistant Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs) and Kristina Wilson (Associate Professor of Art History, Clark University), as well as the Clark seminar students who spent a semester researching this antique photographic process. Music, hors d'oeuvres, and a cash bar will be available throughout the event. Contemporary artists featured in the exhibition will also be on hand to celebrate. Join the fun and come dressed in your best blues! Free with Museum admission.