Artist
Sarah Charlesworth (American, 1947–2013)American, 1947–2013
CultureAmerican
Titles
- Arc of Total Eclipse, February 26, 1979
Date1979, printed 2019
MediumChromogenic prints
DimensionsSheet (Each): variable; approximately 22 × 16 in. (55.9 × 40.6 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment Fund
Object number2019.230.1-.29
Not on view
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Department
PhotographyObject Type
Charlesworth came of age artistically in the 1960s and early 1970s as the rigorous and pristine objects of Minimalism gave way to the dematerialized art of Conceptualism. She rose to prominence in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Richard Prince, and other artists of the “Pictures Generation.” Charlesworth’s Modern History series perfectly exemplifies that pivot point, as she and others adopted Conceptual art’s rule-based creative systems and banishment of the artist’s hand but at the same time embraced representation once again, exploring the way popular images both reflect and influence modern life.
ProvenanceEstate of the artist; [Paula Cooper Gallery, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2019.
Exhibition History"Sarah Charlesworth: Arc of Total Eclipse," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May 19–November 29, 2020.
Other prints:
“Sarah Charlesworth: Modern History,” New 57 Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland,1979
“Motion and Document - Sequence and Time: Eadweard Muybridge and Contemporary American Photography,” curated by James Sheldon and Jock Reynolds, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, June 28 – September 8, 1991; traveled to Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA, October 18 – December 15, 1991; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA, July 19 – September 6, 1992; Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT; International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, BC, 1992
“Sarah Charlesworth: A Retrospective,” curated by Louis Grachos and Susan Fisher Sterling, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM, November 1, 1997 – January 25, 1998; traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA, March 23 – June 13, 1998; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., July 9 – September 23, 1998; Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH, November 20, 1998 – January 24, 1999
“Visions from America: Photographs from the Whitney Museum of American Art,” 1940-2001, curated by Sylvia Wolf, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, June 27 - September 22, 2002
“Singular Visions: A Selection of Seldom-Seen Postwar Works From The Whitney’s Collection,” curated by Dana Miller and Scott Rothkopf, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, December 16, 2010 – July 11, 2011
“Sun Works,” Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA, November 9, 2011 – May 6, 2012
“The Sun Placed in the Abyss,” Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, October 7, 2016 - January 8, 2017
“Sarah Charlesworth: Doubleworld,” New Museum, New York, NY, June 24 - September 20, 2015; traveled to LACMA, Los Angeles, August 20 – November 26, 2017
“Selections from Sarah Charlesworth's 'Arc of Total Eclipse, February 26, 1979,'” outdoor projection, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, August 21, 2017
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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Sarah Charlesworth
1980/2012, printed 2017
Gelatin silver print
2019.180
Liza Ryan
1995
Chromogenic prints and gelatin silver print with artist's frames
2002.3033.A-.C
