{"data":{"id":159605,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/159605","is_boosted":false,"title":"The Sylphs (Les Sylphides)","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBwAFAPUAACEfHiIiGCQgGiUjHCciHickHislHycjICYlIikoIiwqITMvKDMwJTs2Kzk4LDs5Lzw7Lz49MUA9MUA+MUE\/MkE+NURDN0hGOllWSltYUl9dVGNeWGxnWmpmXmxoXX55bYJ9coeCdKymmwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAHAAUAAAYhQEdhA0AEIpBKJ5PQWCgSTggjAjEEC8Xj42kYCIfB5BIEADs=","width":4905,"height":3690,"alt_text":"A work made of gelatin silver print."},"main_reference_number":"2001.401","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1935,"date_end":1937,"date_display":"1935\/37","date_qualifier_title":"Made","date_qualifier_id":4,"artist_display":"Alexey Brodovitch\nAmerican, born Russia, 1898\u20131971","place_of_origin":"United States","description":"<p>Alexey Brodovitch, the pioneering art director of <em>Harper\u2019s Bazaar<\/em> from 1934 to 1958, possessed an elegant, spare, and innovative design sensibility governed by intuition rather than grids and rules. This improvisational approach informed his only extended body of photographs, <em>Ballet<\/em>, which was published as a book in 1945. Shooting from the wings with a 35 mm camera, Brodovitch developed a visual style that broke with the conventions of both fine art photography and photojournalism. Rather than freeze the dancer\u2019s movements with a flash, Brodovitch used only the available stage lighting. The blurs, lens flare, grain, and contrast of the resulting images echo in their spontaneity and vitality the dancers\u2019 own leaps and dives. Printed to the edges, Brodovitch\u2019s book heightened the dynamic flow of dance as one image seamlessly gave way to the next. The raw expressivity of Brodovitch\u2019s work influenced photographers into the 1960s, many of whom\u2014Richard Avedon, Robert Frank, and Diane Arbus, among others\u2014worked for him at <em>Harper\u2019s Bazaar<\/em>.<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"Image\/paper: 20.5 \u00d7 27.6 cm (8 1\/8 \u00d7 10 7\/8 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":27,"height":20,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Image\/paper"}],"medium_display":"Gelatin silver print","inscriptions":"Unmarked recto; verso unchecked","credit_line":"Purchased with funds provided by Karen and Jim Frank","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Westerbeck, Colin. 2003. \u201cThe Sylphs (Les Sylphides).\u201d Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies. 29 (2) pp. 42\u201343.","exhibition_history":"Art Institute of Chicago, \"New to View: Recent Acquisitions in Photography,\" February 8\u2013October 19, 2003. (Elizabeth Siegel)\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, \"Photography on Display: Modern Treasures,\" May 9\u2013September 13, 2009. (Matthew S. Witkovsky, Elizabeth Siegel, and Katherine Bussard)\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Gallery 10 Permanent Collection Rotation, May\u2013October, 2012.","provenance_text":null,"edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":20,"fiscal_year":2002,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":false,"is_zoomable":false,"max_zoom_window_size":843,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":9.7839,"color":{"h":38,"l":50,"s":6,"percentage":0.02771055753262159,"population":146},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Photograph","artwork_type_id":2,"department_title":"Photography and Media","department_id":"PC-12","artist_id":98395,"artist_title":"Alexey Brodovitch","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[98395],"artist_titles":["Alexey Brodovitch"],"category_ids":["PC-12"],"category_titles":["Photography and Media"],"term_titles":["gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr","black-and-white photography","photography","20th Century","photographic paper","photograph","photography","photographic processes","photographic techniques","photography","black-and-white film","gelatin silver print","photograph"],"style_id":"TM-13130","style_title":"20th Century","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-13130"],"style_titles":["20th Century"],"classification_id":"TM-213","classification_title":"gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr","alt_classification_ids":["TM-240","TM-67"],"classification_ids":["TM-213","TM-240","TM-67"],"classification_titles":["gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr","photograph","photography"],"subject_id":null,"alt_subject_ids":[],"subject_ids":[],"subject_titles":[],"material_id":"TM-14147","alt_material_ids":["TM-3046","TM-3441","TM-13866","TM-13858"],"material_ids":["TM-14147","TM-3046","TM-3441","TM-13866","TM-13858"],"material_titles":["photography","photographic paper","black-and-white film","gelatin silver print","photograph"],"technique_id":"TM-12089","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3937","TM-3977","TM-3978"],"technique_ids":["TM-12089","TM-3937","TM-3977","TM-3978"],"technique_titles":["black-and-white photography","photographic processes","photographic techniques","photography"],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"0d70f0c4-9dfe-0393-a10a-b04e56109834","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["2001.401"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["The Sylphs (Les Sylphides)"],"weight":248,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2024-08-28T10:51:40-05:00","updated_at":"2026-09-24T17:04:43-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-25T11:28:58-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.16"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}