Untitled (Crotona Park from Thomas Ellis Photograph)

Darrel Ellis American
ca. 1990
Not on view
Ellis turned to photography following the loss of his father, Thomas, a portrait photographer killed in an act of police brutality. After his father’s death, Ellis discovered an archive of his commercial prints and family snapshots dating back to the 1950s. Treating these found photographs as essential source material, the young artist incorporated them into his own practice, creating works like this intergenerational assemblage. Ellis’s mother and sister are visible in the snapshot, which he projected onto the collaged surface of his studio wall. Commingling with ruptured fragments of collage, the ghostly projection evokes a legacy of trauma.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Untitled (Crotona Park from Thomas Ellis Photograph)
  • Artist: Darrel Ellis (American, New York 1958–1992 New York)
  • Date: ca. 1990
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 7 15/16 × 9 7/8 in. (20.1 × 25.1 cm)
    Frame (approx.): 17 × 19 in. (43.2 × 48.3 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2019
  • Object Number: 2019.287
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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