While at the Institute of Design in Chicago (1946-1961), Callahan took advantage of that city's canyonlike urban core, as well as its dense pedestrian life and lakeshore geography.
Harry Callahan (1912-1999) always made place the measure of his artistic sensibility. In Detroit, where he was born and raised, Callahan focused on snow, the Great Lakes, and industrial cityscapes. While at the Institute of Design in Chicago (1946-1961), Callahan took advantage of that city's canyonlike urban core, as well as its dense pedestrian life and lakeshore geography. Later on, at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence (1961-1983), Callahan concentrated on expanses of beach and shoreline waves, among other subjects. In each case, the artist pushed the notion of clarity nearly to a paradoxical illegibility, exploring extremes of white and black as well as subtle juxtapositions of gray in his quest to describe liminal forms of abstraction.