Untitled
This unique print comes from a group of 36 works De Sana prepared for, but never delivered to, a collector in the late 1980s. By 1985, De Sana had been diagnosed with AIDS and in a related illness had his spleen removed. Incorporating more collage elements into his images in the last five years of his life (he passed away in 1990), De Sana also moved away from his previously ebullient and playful nude figure studies in theatrical tableaux to make more tightly cropped images, such as this study of a man's head shot through with a bloom of blade-like shapes (achieved through multiple printing the abstract shapes over the image). With its vaguely sickening green cast over a face with downturned eyes, as if looking inside himself, De Sana's reckoning with mortality make this image very powerful and disturbing.
Artwork Details
- Title: Untitled
- Artist: Jimmy DeSana (American, Detroit, Michigan 1949–1990 New York)
- Date: 1985
- Medium: Silver dye bleach print
- Dimensions: Image: 13 1/2 in. × 10 in. (34.3 × 25.4 cm) (visible)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2017
- Object Number: 2017.191
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Jimmy DeSana
1980
Jimmy DeSana
1987
Jan Henle
1991–94
Vik Muniz
1998
Adam Fuss
1992
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.