Portrait (Hals)
Using software he designs himself, Salavon produces typological averages of related images such as Playboy centerfolds, high-school yearbook portraits, and Old Master paintings. To create this photograph, which was inspired by the Metropolitan Museum’s Dutch Golden Age painting galleries, the artist gathered high-quality reproductions of portraits by Frans Hals. He then used an open-source programming language to generate the paintings’ mathematical average. The result is an impressionistic composite that reveals the hidden norm lurking within the Dutch master’s oeuvre.
Artwork Details
- Title: Portrait (Hals)
- Artist: Jason Salavon (American, born 1970)
- Date: 2009
- Medium: Chromogenic print
- Dimensions: Image: 101.6 x 76.2 cm (40 x 30 in.)
Frame: 102.2 × 83.2 cm (40 1/4 × 32 3/4 in.) - Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2010
- Object Number: 2010.128
- Rights and Reproduction: © 2009 Jason Salavon
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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