Convergence & Divergence
Three Artists
Two Art Forms
ONE Century of Vision
Our current exhibition, Convergence and Divergence shares the legacy of one artistic family: printmaker Roi Partridge, photographer Imogen Cunningham, and their son, photographer Rondal Partridge. The first exhibition examining these three artists together, it offers unprecedented access to personal archives. Curated by Meg Partridge, Rondal's daughter, Imogen and Roi's granddaughter, the work spans a century of American art, illuminating the evolution of modernist vision from the early 1900s through the 21st century.
It tells an intimate story: how artistic vision travels across generations, how family members see the same world with different eyes, and how three artists kept their creative spark alive while making a living as artists.
The show draws on three unusually long careers — nearly 110 years of combined work. The selection includes celebrated masterworks alongside intimate studies rarely seen outside family collections, revealing not just what these artists achieved but how they worked, experimented, and approached their shared subjects from distinctly individual perspectives.
THE ARTISTS
Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976) pioneered American modernist photography across seven decades. A founding member of Group f/64 with Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, Imogen is celebrated for her iconic botanical studies — none more so than the 1925 Magnolia Blossom, one of photography's most enduring images.
She photographed Frida Kahlo, Martha Graham, Ruth Asawa and many other friends and artists in her circle.
Roi Partridge (1888-1984) trained as an etcher in Munich and Paris before marrying Imogen in 1915. While photography began generating interest in the art world, he devoted himself to etching. His technically masterful prints earned him election to the National Academy of Design.
Teaching art at Mills College for twenty-six years, he quietly and consistently created a body of work that preserved landscapes - often before they vanished beneath development.
Rondal Partridge (1917-2015) literally grew up in the darkroom. At sixteen, he apprenticed with Imogen's good friend Dorothea Lange, driving her through Depression-era California and absorbing her conviction that documenting human dignity and rights was essential work. He went on to apprentice with Ansel Adams in Yosemite, gaining masterful darkroom skills and sharing Ansel's passion for wilderness preservation. Rondal wove these influences together over eighty more years, photographing his abiding passions — urbanization, the cost of progress, revealing human portraits, and engaging still lifes.