McLean, Virginia, December 4, 1978
Artist
Joel Sternfeld
(American, born 1944)
Date1978
Mediumdye coupler print
Dimensionssheet: 34.3 × 43.2 cm (13 1/2 × 17 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineMuseum Purchase through the Gift of Mrs. Joseph Goodhue
Terms
Object number1983.15
Label TextOne of the early adoptees of color photography, Joel Sternfeld followed in the footsteps of photographers like Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, and Walker Evans who drove cross-country documenting everyday America.
Sternfeld stumbled upon this scene while driving in his Volkswagen van. The photograph immediately provokes the question why is a fireman buying a pumpkin as an inferno envelops a house behind him? In offering only a title with the most scant information, Sternfeld denies the viewer the answer. After the photograph was published it was revealed that the fire was the result of a training exercise for the McLean Volunteer Fire Department. Why pumpkins were being bought and sold in December remains a mystery.
Among the earliest adoptees of color photography, Sternfeld, Eggleston, and Shore documented American roadsides throughout the 1970s. Their bright, saturated hues suggest a connection to Pop artists like Rosalyn Drexler, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann. As a senior in high school, Shore found his way to Warhol’s studio. There he documented the goings-on at Warhol’s infamous Factory, an art space that became a hangout for celebrities, artists, hipsters, and socialites.
If Warhol serves as the de facto starting point for American Pop, Eggleston’s photograph of a weathered Wonder Bread billboard signals its end. The eye-catching reds, yellows, and blues on the billboard have surrendered to rust. The seductive and splashy branding Warhol emulated in his Campbell’s Soup Can series has eroded into the equally unattractive reality of economic depression.
ProvenanceDaniel Wolf, Inc., 30 West 57 Street, New York, NY 10019On View
Not on view
