Many Ways of Seeing

The first publication on the art collection of renowned photographer Alfred Stieglitz—including works by Picasso and Cézanne, African masks, and his circle of modern American artists—which helped introduce and define modern art in America, entwined with issues of race and education.

Gifted in 1949 by Georgia O’Keeffe to Fisk University, a historically Black university in Nashville, the Alfred Stieglitz Collection includes 101 works from the estate of Alfred Stieglitz, O’Keeffe’s late husband. Part of his collection arriving at Fisk has long been a source of fascination in the field of American art, but this is the first publication to recount and analyze this complex and extraordinary history. The reverberations of the gift go far beyond O’Keeffe and Stieglitz, involving decades of students and faculty at Fisk, such as preeminent artists Aaron Douglas and David C. Driskell.  

This publication was collaboratively developed by Fisk University and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, co-owners of the collection since 2012. Highlights of the collection include nineteenth-century African masks and iconic paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and Florine Stettheimer. The book is an essential source for the next generation of students, scholars, and museum professionals, providing fresh perspectives on the most important figures in American modern art.

Jen Padgett is Windgate Curator of Craft at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Jamaal B. Sheats is associate provost of Art and Culture at Fisk University and director and curator of the Fisk University Galleries.