Artist
Doug DuBois(American, born 1960)American, born 1960
CultureAmerican
Titles
- Lise and Spencer in Their Backyard, New Brunswick, New Jersey
- from the series Family Photos, 1999-2006
Date1999, printed 2008
Place depictedNew Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
MediumChromogenic print
DimensionsImage: 15 1/2 × 23 in. (39.4 × 58.4 cm)
Sheet: 20 × 24 in. (50.8 × 61 cm)
Sheet: 20 × 24 in. (50.8 × 61 cm)
Credit LineGift of the artist
Object number2009.12
Not on view
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Department
PhotographyObject Type
DuBois started photographing his family in 1984, beginning an exploration of
intimacy, estrangement, love, and distance. Markedly different from the smiling
faces often found in family photos, DuBois’s images uncovered realities that he
was not always fully conscious of at the moment: “I realized, quite profoundly,
that . . . you can look at something, and not recognize it, that photographs
tell you more than you know.” Here, DuBois’s sister Lise walks through her
backyard with her infant son, Spencer, framed against the backdrop of a
developing neighborhood. The uncertainty of new motherhood is echoed by the
newly constructed homes.
ProvenanceThe artist, Syracuse, New York; given to MFAH, 2009.
Exhibition History"Always Greener: Seeing and Seeking Suburbia—Selections from the Museum’s Collection," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, August 21, 2018–February 3, 2019.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Marked in ink on verso lower left: "LISE AND SPENCER IN THEIR BACKYARD, NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ 1999"
Signed(illegible) in ink on verso lower right: "Doug DuBois 2008 4/10"
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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