By Bruce Cratsley
Located in Surfside, FL
Bruce Cratsley, American (1944-1998)
Vintage gelatin silver print
(Television) TV Head
A surrealist image of a window mannequin man with a TV head.
Hand signed, titled and dated 1987 verso
image (each): 15 1/4 x 15 1/4 inches, matted to 24 X 20 inches
Provenance: From the collection of AGFA Graphics Corporation
David Bruce Cratsley (1944 - 1998) was an American photographer specialized in still lifes, portraits of friends, and life in New York City. He had a reputation of master of light and shadow.
Bruce Cratsley attended Swarthmore College, graduating in 1966, and then, in the early 1970s, The New School for Social Research, studying under Lisette Model.
Cratsley worked for many years as a gallerist at Marlborough Gallery before quitting in 1986 to become a full-time photographer. As "Bruce Cratsley", he exhibited in various New York galleries, like: Laurence Miller Gallery, Howard Greenberg Gallery and Witkin Gallery. Cratsley was represented by Yancey Richardson Gallery, a dealer of fine art photography based in SoHo. He was photographed by Elsa Dorfman who shot many luminaries including, Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, Anaïs Nin and more. In 1978 Cratsley contributed the photo sequences for the musical The Class, performed by The New Ballet School at the New York City Center.
In 1980, Cratsley showed his work, Atlantic City, 1977, an August beach scene, at the 11th Anniversary show at the Witkin Gallery. In 1989 Cratsley was awarded with the Guggenheim Fellowship for Photography, US & Canada.
Cratsley documented gay life in NYC including his life with David Waine, who died in 1991. "I'd been photographing David since long before he became sick [...] at some point I realized that this was an extraordinary thing that was happening, and that I had an intimate relationship to it. I photographed David just a few hours before he died, not knowing what was about to happen [...] David was very spiritual [...] My pictures are a poetic, spiritualized look at AIDS".
In 1995 Cratsley was included together with Barbara Norfleet, Olivia Parker and John Sturges in the list of bestselling photographer at Robert Klein Gallery...
Category
1980s American Modern Figurative Photography
