Barcelona Backdrop
Artist
Thomas Barrow
(American, b. 1938)
CultureAmerican
Date1975
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 9 5/8 × 13 11/16 in. (24.4 × 34.8 cm)
Overall, Paper: 10 7/8 × 13 7/8 in. (27.6 × 35.2 cm)
Overall, Paper: 10 7/8 × 13 7/8 in. (27.6 × 35.2 cm)
InscribedSigned, titled, dated on recto
Portfolio"Cancellations" series
Credit LineGift of James and Holly Bogin
Object number2005.27.10
On View
Not on viewLabel Textbottom Thomas Barrow American, b. 1938 Barcelona Backdrop, 1975 Gelatin silver print (photograph), from the Cancellations series Gift of James and Holly Bogin 2005.27.10 These two photographs dramatize the relationship between artists and the natural world. Above, Carrie Mae Weems pairs text and image to evoke the life and spirit of writer Zora Neal Hurston (1891–1960). The photograph comes from a series on Eatonville, Florida, Hurston’s home and the first U.S. town incorporated by black residents. In the image, Weems reenacts the writer’s daily life, suggesting how a place like Eatonville exists in memory and imagination as much as in the land itself. Below, Thomas Barrow’s deadpan image of a desolate parking lot captures the human manipulation of the natural world. Yet by carving a large X into his negative (which ensures it will appear in every print), he asserts the artist’s role in making the image, demonstrating that any depiction of the landscape is a manipulated scene. ProvenanceJames and Holly Bogin, Larkspur, CA [through photography collector Michael Mattis]; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, Gift of James and Holly Bogin, 2005. Exhibition History"New Light on Land: Photographs from the Chrysler Collection," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 28 - May 15, 2016.
