Untitled

1997

Not on view

For the past two decades Fuss has been using living things-from mushrooms to babies-in his photograms, allowing the chance effects of their movement to help generate the picture's design. For this work, he let loose half a dozen snakes on a large sheet of photographic paper dusted with a fine coating of talcum powder. Over time, as the paper was exposed to light, the movement of the snakes "drew" the image by more or less delicately shifting the powder into fan- and swag-shaped forms. With its monumental scale, allover composition, and gestural vitality, the picture recalls the work of Abstract Expressionists such as Pollock and De Kooning, but here the guiding hand of the artist has been replaced by the ego-less energy of reptilian life.

Artwork Details

Title: Untitled
Artist: Adam Fuss (British, born 1961)
Date: 1997
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Dimensions: Image: 174.6 x 130.7cm (68 3/4 x 51 7/16in.)
Frame: 199.4 x 154.9 x 7.6 cm (78 1/2 x 61 x 3 in.)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Gift of Howard and Katia Read, 1997
Object Number: 1997.526
Rights and Reproduction: © Adam Fuss
Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

By Adam Fuss

In the same medium

From the same time and place

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Untitled (Left Panel of Triptych), Adam Fuss British, Gelatin silver print — Untitled (Left Panel of Triptych)
Adam Fuss
1991

Untitled (Center Panel of Triptych), Adam Fuss British, Gelatin silver print — Untitled (Center Panel of Triptych)
Adam Fuss
1991

Untitled [Sainte-Genevieve]

Adam Fuss

1995

From the Series "My Ghost"

Adam Fuss

1999

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