Dawoud Bey
Mavis

Mavis

© Dawoud Bey

Mavis
Mavis
ArtistAmerican, born 1953
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Mavis
Date1995
MediumDye diffusion transfer prints
DimensionsSheet (each): 29 3/4 × 21 3/4 in. (75.6 × 55.2 cm)
Overall: 62 1/2 × 46 1/2 × 2 1/4 in. (158.8 × 118.1 × 5.7 cm)
Frame (each): 31 1/4 × 23 1/4 × 2 1/4 in. (79.4 × 59.1 × 5.7 cm)
Credit LineGift of Stephen Daiter in honor of Anne Wilkes Tucker on the occasion of her retirement
Object number2015.368.A-.D
Non exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description



Photographs from the Harlem
Renaissance by James Van Der Zee at the Metropolitan Museum’s 1969 exhibition
“Harlem on My Mind” inspired the teenaged Dawoud Bey to spend nearly two
decades portraying African Americans on the streets of modern-day Harlem and elsewhere.
In 1991 he struck out in a new direction, working with one of Polaroid’s five
20 x 24-inch cameras. “I wanted to bring in some aspect of Rembrandt and
Caravaggio, whose work I always loved,” he explained, “but outside of a
controlled environment like the studio it was impossible.” In his monumental,
multipanel Polaroids, Bey was able to achieve the “heightened, singular,
dramatized sense [of] an individual person” that he found in the Old Masters but
that was uncommon in representations of young men and women of color.






ProvenanceArtist; principal dealer, Stephen Daiter; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, 2015
Exhibition HistoryDawoud Bey: Portraits 1975 - 1995 (see back label copy for list of venues), September 1995 - July 1997
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
.D) Signed in ink on verso back label: Dawould Bey
.A-.D) Printed labels on each verso backboard:

Dawoud Bey: Portraits 1975 - 1995 / Organized by Walker Art Center // Walker Art Center, Minneapolis: September 17 - December 10, 1995 / Albright Knox Art Gallery: January 12 - February 25, 1996 / Chicago Cultural Center: March 30 - June 2, 1996 / Virginia Beach Center For The Arts: September 22 - November 10, 1996 / El Paso Museum of Art: January 12 - March 9, 1997 / The Newark Museum in association with the Jeersey City Museum / and the Robeson Center Gallery at Rutgers, Newark: April - July 1997
Checklist # 88.1 Checklist # 88.2 Checklist # 88.3 Checklist # 88.4 Crate # 35 / Mavis / Polacolor ER photographs / Courtesy Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago

.D) Printed label on verso backboard: Davoud Bey / Mavis, 1995 // A group of four Polaroid photographs. / Signed and dated by the artist. // 48/ x 40 in. x 101.6 cm / 663.437.3.13 / (signature)

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Sol and Carol Lewitt
Dawoud Bey
1997
Dye diffusion transfer prints
2022.12.A,.B
Marcia & Waynette
Dawoud Bey
1996
Dye diffusion transfer prints
2022.11.A-.F
Dawoud Bey, "Horace and Shomari," 1996, dye diffusion transfer prints, the Museum of Fine Arts, ...
Dawoud Bey
1996
Dye diffusion transfer prints
2018.303.A-.F
Home Improvements
Robert Frank
1985
Dye diffusion transfer prints with written text and artist's frame
91.12.A-.G
Mavis with Cigarette
Judy Bankhead
1994, printed 1995
Gelatin silver print
2018.88
Studies in the Evolution of - Prototype for 'The Plot to Assassinate the Queen'
MANUAL
1975–1976
Dye diffusion transfer prints and gelatin silver prints on artist's mount
79.161
Rudi's Car
Robert Frank
1978
Internal dye diffusion transfer prints
86.240.1
School Bus Passing My Mailbox
Robert Frank
1978
Internal dye diffusion transfer prints
86.240.2
Portfolio contents
Tom Patti
1982–1984
Paper, colored pencil, graphite, gelatin silver prints, newsprint, and vinyl portfolio
2023.267.A-.D
Pick a Prop, Strike a Pose
1880–1970
Albumen silver prints, tintypes, cyanotypes, gelatin silver prints, chromogenic prints, internal dye diffusion transfer prints, lentincular prints
2020.137.5.1-.501
Mona Lisa: Problematics of Identity Theory I & II
MANUAL
1977
Internal dye diffusion transfer prints on artists' mounts
80.88.A,.B
Various
110 gelatin silver prints, chromogenic prints, cyanotypes, internal dye diffusion transfer prints, and halftone prints
2021.588.1-.110