Artist
Jimmy DeSana(American, 1949–1990)American, 1949–1990
CultureAmerican
Titles
- Chair
Date1985
MediumSilver dye bleach print
DimensionsAt opening: 9 5/16 × 7 5/16 in. (23.6 × 18.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of Steven Kasher and Susan Spungen
Object number2018.553
Not on view
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Department
PhotographyObject Type
After Jimmy DeSana was diagnosed with AIDS in 1985, his provocative, intense, and sometimes playful photographs took a marked turn toward abstraction. To create Chair, DeSana photographed his Dalmatian curled up in an armchair, then printed his black-and-white negative through a color filter on direct-positive color photographic paper, creating this arresting negative image. Here, and in other works created in the same way, the familiar world seems unrecognizable—nothing is the same as it had been.
ProvenanceSteven Kasher and Susan Spungen, New York; given to MFAH, 2018.
Exhibition History“Jimmy DeSana: Late Work,” Steven Kasher Gallery, New York, January 13 – February 18th, 2017
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[signed and dated by photographer]
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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Jill Waterman
2000
Silver dye bleach print
2000.614
Celia Alvárez Muñoz
1990
Maple cabinet, silver dye bleach photographs, letterpress type, fabric, ribbon, buttons, dijos, and found objects
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