Artist: Leon Lewandowski (American, 1932 – 2005)
Titles: Picture of Cora Ward
Date: c.1950
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: 7 9/16 in x 7 1/2 in inches
Credit Line: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Steve Nordman, 2017.10.2

Leon Lewandowski (American, 1932– 2005) has been described as a “forgotten street photographer.”¹ Indeed, much of Lewandowski’s work did not see the light of day until after his death, when a Chicago collector purchased a large box of Lewandowski’s work from an antiques dealer in 2008.

Leon Lewandowski worked primarily in Chicago. He received his MA in photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago, studying under photographers Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind.² In a 1999 interview about his time at the Institute of Design, Lewandowski recalled that he was less interested in aesthetic studio photography and primarily shot outdoors.  “In those days, everybody wanted to work for Life magazine, and we were all going to be magazine photographers,” he said. “None of us were like Aaron [Siskind] or Harry [Callahan] or Art [Sinsabaugh], who were interested in taking art photographs, you know?”³ 

Lewandowski’s portrait of painter Cora Kelley Ward, however, seems closer to “art photography” than much of his street photography. The photograph shows Ward in an ambiguous setting, standing still in a trench coat. Lewandowski captures Ward in a tiny diorama-like scene, framed by a thick expanse of black as if suspended in midair. She stands against a plain concrete wall, perfectly centered between two ladders, grasping a bag over her shoulder. Her gaze is directed upward at two figures standing on the ladders with only their legs visible. With a lack of identifiable details, the photograph’s setting is mysterious—although the stained concrete walls and wash of apparent sunlight from above hint that Ward was standing in an exterior.

Lewandowski’s photograph emulates techniques common amongst work by students and teachers at the Institute of Design. For instance, Nathan Lerner’s Paper on String depicts paper suspended in an ambiguous space, and employs a similar stark contrast between dark and bright white. Lewandowski’s photograph recalls these motifs and gestures toward abstraction, while injecting his focus on human subjects and still shooting outside.  

Lewandowski and Ward likely crossed paths for this photograph while they both attended the Institute of Design: Ward earned her degree in Visual Design in 1953; Lewandowski in Photography in 1955.⁴ 

Lewandowski’s chosen subject also holds a rich story. Born in Louisiana, Ward studied at Black Mountain College and was in Chicago for only a few short years before she moved to New York City. There she became involved with the Abstract Expressionist and Color Field painters.⁵ Ward produced over 1,000 colorful abstract compositions in a range of experimentation—multicolored splashes of pebble-like dots, large pastel color-field blocks, or immense egg-like ovals. She was also known for meticulously photographing her notable friends in the art world, including artist Helen Frankenthaler and critic Clement Greenberg.

Despite her relationships with prominent artists and critics, Ward’s practice never quite gained traction. She worked as a nurse to pay the bills and—like Lewandowski—died with most of her artwork in storage.⁶ After Hurricane Katrina forced Ward’s siblings to evacuate the unit where their sister’s art was held in 2005, much of her work was given to the Hilliard Museum at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, which offered many of the artworks to the public at $2 per square foot in an unusual sale.⁷ Only in recent years has her work begun to garner more interest on the art market.

Lewandowski’s photograph of Cora Ward captures an early-career intersection of two artists who, although prolific and surrounded by artists with high-profile careers, have remained largely unknown in the art historical canon. As journalist Jan Risher aptly wrote about Cora Ward, “…the space between being at the forefront of an art movement and being a footnote can be very small indeed.”⁸

Contributed by Madeleine Giaconia (SOC ’24), PhD student, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University  

Bibliography

1. John Foster, “Leon Lewandowski,” Design Observer (January 2, 2015), https://web.archive.org/web/20230610043710/http://designobserver.com:80/feature/leon-lewandowski/38717 ↩︎
2. Foster, “Leon Lewandowski,” Design Observer (January 2, 2015). ↩︎
3. Leon Lewandowski, “Interview of Leon Landowski,” by Elizabeth Siegel, February 10, 1999. Artists History Oral Archive, Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archive, Art Institute of Chicago. https://artic.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/artists/id/369 ↩︎
4. Black Mountain College Museum and Art Center, “Cora Kelley Ward,” https://www.blaCorckmountaincollege.org/cora-kelley-ward/ ↩︎
5. Black Mountain College Museum and Art Center, “Cora Kelley Ward,” https://www.blackmountaincollege.org/cora-kelley-ward/ ↩︎
6. John Ed Bradley, “Unearthing the Art of Cora Kelley Ward,” Garden & Gun (February/March 2021), https://gardenandgun.com/feature/unearthing-the-art-of-cora-kelley-ward/ ↩︎
7. Jan Risher, “Second Life: Art, immortality, and selling creativity for $2 per square,” Country Roads Magazine, April 27, 2015. foothttps://gardenandgun.com/feature/unearthing-the-art-of-cora-kelley-ward/ ↩︎
8. Risher, “Second Life: Art, immortality, and selling creativity for $2 per square,” Country Roads Magazine, April 27, 2015. ↩︎