This new exhibition of photographs and text explores the lives and close familial and artistic relationship between the author, poet, and folk songwriter Carl Sandburg (seen in top photo) and his brother-in-law, the highly acclaimed photographer Edward Steichen (seen in second photo with his wife). The photographs in the exhibition, which also include works by Steichen family members, range over five decades and provide a marvelous glimpse into the daily lives of two vastly influential artists, whose work helped define the American artistic landscape. In his 1963 autobiography, "A Life in Photography," Edward Steichen said, "I have always felt that, when my little sister acquired a husband, I acquired a brother." Sandburg felt the same and stated that two of the chief influences in his life were Lilian Steichen Sandburg and Edward Steichen. The photographs in "Steichen and Sandburg: Artistic and Family Ties," often of everyday scenes, are wonderful in their tender evocation of a large and loving family.

Carl and Lilian Sandburg moved to Flat Rock, North Carolina, partly on the advice of Steichen, who spent some time at the Grove Park Inn in the 1920s, and the exhibition includes some photographs taken at the Sandburg's Flat Rock home, Connemara, now a National Historic Site.

Edward Steichen and Carl Sandburg were born within a year of each other, and their lives are both illustrative of a fascinating time in American arts and letters. Steichen immigrated to this country from Luxembourg as a toddler. He returned to Europe as a young man and studied in Paris at the turn of the century, befriending notable artists, including Auguste Rodin, Henri Matisse and others. Steichen returned to America eager to disseminate his new knowledge, and joined forces with photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Both of them founded a New York gallery, 291, in 1905, which would be very important in both establishing photography as an art form and introducing the works of avant-garde European artists to an American public. Meanwhile, Carl Sandburg, born to Swedish immigrant parents in Illinois, traveled through the American Midwest as a young man, discovering the heart of the country that he would celebrate in his poetry and prose. Sandburg's robust poetry and plainly written narratives established a distinctly American voice, legitimizing and popularizing the free-verse form in American literature. In 1908, Sandburg met Lilian Steichen, younger sister of Edward Steichen, at a Socialist meeting in Chicago, and the two were married some six months later, after carrying on a courtship by letter. Edward Steichen and Carl Sandburg took to each other at once, and the friendship continued throughout their lives.

Steichen's career as a photographer was long and varied. In his early career, he focused on art photography, developing a soft focused "Pictorialist" style that relied heavily on Impressionist and Post-Impressionist visual ideas. After World War I, Steichen went to work for Conde Nast Publications, photographing prominent people for such magazines as "Vogue" and "Vanity Fair," where he was lauded in 1923 as "the greatest living portrait photographer." Steichen's work has had a long and lasting influence on photography. He is widely regarded as one of the preeminent photographers of the twentieth century, and his images, particularly of celebrities of the 1920s and 1930s, have gained iconic status.

In 1938, Steichen retired from commercial photography, and in 1947 became the Director of the Department of Photography at New York City's Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Between 1947 and 1962, he curated forty-six exhibitions for MOMA. Steichen and Sandburg, sharing the belief and commitment that art should be a "civilizing force" and "humanizing power" in the modern world, often worked together, perhaps most notably on "The Family of Man" exhibition and publication in 1955. This unprecedented project, with a prologue by Sandburg, featured 503 images from 273 photographers and 68 countries and made a bold statement, in the midst of the Cold War, of the universal oneness of humanity. In conjunction with the exhibition, Lynn White Savage, Guest Curator, will present a special Gallery Talk on Sunday, December 2, at 2PM, and Penelope Niven, the author of biographies of both Sandburg and Steichen, will speak at a date to be announced. For the duration of the exhibition, the Museum will be screening two videos on Edward Steichen, every Saturday and Sunday at 3PM. The Museum is also hosting a gala opening dance party, celebrating this exhibition and the "Rafael Guastavino: Barcelona to Black Mountain" exhibition, on Saturday, November 17, from 7-10PM, with live music by the Frim Fram Sauce band. The party is free for museum members and $5 for non-members.

The Asheville Art Museum is open 10AM-5PM, Tuesday through Saturday and 1-5PM on Sunday. The Museum is open every Friday until 8PM. The Museum is located in the Pack Place Education, Arts and Science Center at 2 South Pack Square. Please call the Museum at 828-253-3227 for more information.

(Photos provided by Carl Sandburg National Home and Historic site and The Getty Museum.)

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