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Grand Master

1982
Not on view
The "grand master" pictured here is not a specific individual, but an assemblage of stereotypes. Artist duo Clegg & Guttmann stage scenes that borrow from the history of portraiture—from Rembrandt paintings to annual-report photography and album-cover art. Their central conceit is to reverse the traditional relationship between artist and patron, recruiting those who usually do the commissioning—collectors, curators, and foundation heads—to appear as anonymous characters in their constructed photographs. Capitalizing on this implied authority, the artists here asked their subject to playact a pose of power. He sits in an ornate Odd Fellows chair before a projected tableau evocative of the same shadowy organization. With uncanny naturalism, he inhabits the role of a ravaged yet stoic puppet master manipulating unseen strings.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Grand Master
  • Artist: Clegg & Guttmann
  • Artist: Michael Clegg (Irish, born Dublin, 1957)
  • Artist: Martin Guttmann (Israeli, born Jerusalem, 1957)
  • Date: 1982
  • Medium: Silver dye bleach print
  • Dimensions: 70 1/16 × 48 1/16 in. (178 × 122.1 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gift of Eve Feuer Urvater, in memory of Ronald M. Urvater, 2014
  • Object Number: 2014.747
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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Our Production, the Production of Others, 1986/2012, CD Cover Version II, Clegg & Guttmann, Chromogenic print
Our Production, the Production of Others, 1986/2012, CD Cover Version II
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1986/2012
Love, Adam Fuss British, Silver dye bleach print
Love
Adam Fuss
1992
Thank You, Paine Webber, Hans Haacke American and German, Gelatin silver print and silver dye bleach print
Thank You, Paine Webber
Hans Haacke
1979
La Colonne Morris dans le Brouillard, Brassaï French, born Romania (Transylvania), Gelatin silver print
La Colonne Morris dans le Brouillard
Brassaï
1932, printed ca. 1960
[Nude Study], Germaine Krull French, born Poland, Gelatin silver print
[Nude Study]
Germaine Krull
1930s

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