The artist was allowed to freely photograph masterpieces from the Met’s extensive collection as he saw fit, experimenting with the use of light and shadow, avant-garde cropping techniques, and color film. Approximately 130 of Sheeler’s photographs were published in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Annual Report, and collection catalogues between 1942-1946.  Others were reproduced as postcards, lantern slides, and large-scale reproductions for sale in the Museum’s gift shop.

     Although Sheeler made several fine art prints from his Met negatives, the patina of the “popular” or “commercial” has long separated this body of work from the artist’s larger oeuvre, an added layer of irony considering the canonical nature of the very objects these images depict. Sheeler conceived each art object he photographed as an isolated element within a larger pictorial arrangement, supplemented by deliberately composed shadows, highlights, and backdrops. Upon closer examination this work presents a thoughtful meditation on the plasticity of the Met’s collection when rendered through a well-trained photographic lens. This paper seeks to situate Sheeler’s methodology within the broader tradition of American readymades, in addition to illuminating one of the Met’s more surprising experiments in Modernism.