La Clase (The Class)

Marcelo Brodsky Argentinian
1996
Not on view
Brodsky returned to his native Argentina in 1994, after having fled the so-called Dirty War—a decade of state-sponsored terrorism during which opponents of the military dictatorship were "disappeared." Two years later, he organized a reunion of his eighth-grade class. During the war, one of their cohort had been murdered by the police and another had vanished. Reprinted at mural size, a photograph of Brodsky’s class in 1967 serves here as a living document for truth and reconciliation. After the reunion, the artist traveled to other countries, interviewing peers who had been unable to attend. Annotating his findings in crayon on the picture surface, he detailed the fates of some former classmates and excised others from the record with a poignant, definitive slash.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: La Clase (The Class)
  • Artist: Marcelo Brodsky (Argentinian, born 1954)
  • Date: 1996
  • Medium: Inkjet print with crayon
  • Dimensions: Image: 47 1/4 × 69 3/4 in. (120 × 177.2 cm)
    Framed: 48 1/8 in. × 71 in. × 1 3/4 in. (122.3 × 180.3 × 4.5 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Charina Foundation Inc. Gift, 2016
  • Object Number: 2016.539
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Marcelo Brodsky / 1996
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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