The Timeline of Art History   The Metropolitan Museum of Art
World MapsTimelines / RegionsThematic EssaysWorks of ArtIndex  
Perpetual Photo, #209 B, 1989
Allan McCollum (American, born 1944)
Gelatin silver print; 45 x 52 in. (114.3 x 132.1 cm)
Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1992 (1992.5005)
© Allan McCollum

Amused by the pictures providing the requisite "color" for interiors in soap operas, situation comedies, and the like, McCollum captured them by photographing his television screen. A few years later, he enlarged fragments of the pictures that had decorated the "rooms." In the unique pictures that resulted, the subjects are often indecipherable, but the dreamy floating forms are far more powerful, mysterious, and timeless than their more legible antecedents. As the artist provided the negative with each unique print, the work of art can be reproduced if lost or damaged in the future, thus underlining its permanence and the relative vapidity and evanescence of its origins.


Open full-size and alternate view(s)



  • Related Timeline(s)

    Related Index Terms

    Artist

    Material and Technique

    Subject Matter/Theme

    Technical Glossary


    MoveSeparatorPrint
    Close
  • Perpetual Photo, #209 B, 1989
    Allan McCollum (American, born 1944)
    Gelatin silver print; 45 x 52 in. (114.3 x 132.1 cm)
    Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1992 (1992.5005)
    © Allan McCollum