Black and white photo of a smiling woman in a hat and fur coat, beside an elegant car. A man inside the car also wears a hat and fur coat.

James Van Der Zee

Couple, Harlem

Maker

James Van Der Zee (American, 1886-1983)

Title

Couple, Harlem
James Van Der Zee: Eighteen Photographs

Year

1932

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Materials

gelatin silver print

Dimensions

18.1 x 23.8 cm (7 1/8 x 9 3/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed in pencil below the image on the mat below the image:XVI 23 / 75; at right:J. Van Der Zee

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum purchase with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts

Object Number

80.232.16

Type

Publications

  • Books

A Century of Black Photographers, 1840-1960

Atl Author/Editor: Valencia Hollins Coar. Catalog of an exhibition held Mar. 31, 1983 - Aug. 26, 1984 at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design and other institutions. Errata slip inserted.

  • Journal

Manual / Issue 16: Intimacy

RISD Museum’s Manual 16 Embraces Intimacy

Intimacy reveals something deeply human in us. We need each other on a practical level, which means having to trust strangers. It’s analogous to what I understand prayer requires and what writing poems requires: an openness to the unknown, coupled with trust, a belief that we won’t be hurt. It’s at once akin to and the same as devotion.
-Carl Phillips

The RISD Museum’s sixteenth issue of Manual touches on the bonds of intimacy and its many expressions. This issue complements the exhibition Any distance between us, co-curated by Stephen Truax and Dominic Molon, on view at the RISD Museum through March 13, 2022.

Exhibition History

Re-Viewing the Twentieth Century
Jul 21, 2006 – Apr 22, 2007
Modernism in the Americas
Jun 20, 2003 – Aug 31, 2003
One Voice, Many Visions
Work By African American Artists
Feb 20, 1998 – Jun 14, 1998
African-American Art from the Permanent Collection
Nov 18, 1994 – Feb 19, 1995

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Tombstone

James Van Der Zee (American, 1886-1983)
Couple, Harlem; James Van Der Zee: Eighteen Photographs, 1932
Gelatin silver print
18.1 x 23.8 cm (7 1/8 x 9 3/8 inches)
Museum purchase with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts 80.232.16

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