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Fred Machetanz (American, 1908–2002)

Ice Fall - Knik Glacier

Date: 1953
Medium: Lithograph
Object Dimensions: 16 x 11 3/8 in. (40.64 x 28.89 cm)
Credit Line: Museum Purchase, 1995.001.13
Photo Credit: Jueqian Fang
Verbal Description: This grainy black-and-white print shows a tiny, silhouetted human figure and a four-legged animal in the foreground. The human looks to be in peril, with their arms up above their head and body turned to shield themselves because the true subject of the image is a column of ice plummeting into a body of water. The scale of this ice is massive—at least ten times the height of the figure and more than four times as wide. The ice fills most of the composition, reaching diagonally across from the left corner, almost to the top right. A small triangle of pure black sky peaks out just above the cap in the top right corner of the composition, balanced by another, slightly larger, black triangle in the bottom right corner representing a cliffside where the figures are located. Just above the figures, where the ice crashes into the water, large waves are created, resembling plumes of smoke. The print has a white border around it, with handwritten text in graphite at the bottom, reading: “‘Ice Fall Knick Glacier,’ Edition 100, Fred Machetanz.”

Collection List This object is a member of the following collections: