My Precious
Artist
Burk Uzzle
(American, b. 1938)
CultureAmerican
Date1988
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 23 × 18 in. (58.4 × 45.7 cm)
Overall, Frame: 37 1/8 × 31 in. (94.3 × 78.7 cm)
Overall, Frame: 37 1/8 × 31 in. (94.3 × 78.7 cm)
Credit LineGift of the artist
Object number92.23.2
Not on view
DescriptionThe following is from the 1992 exhibition catalogue A PROGRESS REPORT ON CIVILIZATION: BURK UZZLE: "As Uzzle began to look more closely at American culture, he created MY PRECIOUS. This is a powerful work concerned with values that many Americans hold dear. The Statue of Liberty, blue jeans, the home, family and a gun are all symbols of freedoms that we enjoy. The handgun is a prominent and quite threatening aspect of this composition. The gun, or the right to bear arms, is countered with the association of the weapon as an object for violence. This ominous element confilcts with the hope for a better world as minifested in the child. Here Uzzle is expressing his concern for the kind of world that we are fashioning and more importantly, what we will leave to the next generation."Exhibition History"A Progress Report on Civilization: Burk Uzzle," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA, July 19 - October 11, 1992. "A History of Photography: 15 Years at The Chrysler Museum", The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va, September 11, 1993 - March 6, 1994. Published References"A Progress Report on Civilization: Burk Uzzle," The Chrysler Museum BULLETIN, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Summer 1992), p. 2, ill. b/w.
