Object Details
Artist
Ralph Gibson
Date
1974
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 14 × 11 inches (35.6 × 28 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon Sobel
Object
Number
93.050.006
In If & (silk), Gibson experiments with portraiture while continuing to explore the liminal space be(…)
In If & (silk), Gibson experiments with portraiture while continuing to explore the liminal space between natural and artificial settings. Here, a female figure is partially occluded by an ancient marble sculpture reminiscent of the Roman portrait head on view nearby. The photograph highlights the textural differences between the human skin and the hard stone of the sculpture. At the same time, the image can be read as a note on the continuous influence of systems of representation and thought from classical antiquity into the present.
(Andrew C. Weislogel, “Wonder and Wakefulness: The Nature of Pliny the Elder,” exhibition organized by the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, curated by Andrew C. Weislogel and Verity J. Platt, presented at the Johnson Museum January 21–June 11, 2023)
Additional materials by Ralph Gibson are held in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Archives 8057.
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