Portrait of Kathe from the series Chemical Celestial Portraits

1994

Not on view

Reflecting his typical amalgamation of the mystical, the absurd, and the hallucinatory, Kathe belongs to Tomaselli's ongoing series Chemical Celestial Portraits, unconventional portraits of friends and family members, based not on their appearance and accomplishments but instead on their astrological and pharmacological identities, what the artist has called their "inner and outer space." On a black ground, Tomaselli inscribed white dots. Each dot bears the name of a specific drug, some recreational, others pharmaceutical. The arrangement of the white dots is derived from the star map for Kathe's sign, which is in turn derived from her date of birth. Each dot is named after a different drug or medication consumed by the sitter over the course of her lifetime, recorded in a questionnaire administrated by the artist.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Inscriptions and Markings

Provenance

Title: Portrait of Kathe from the series Chemical Celestial Portraits
Artist: Fred Tomaselli (American, born Santa Monica, California, 1956)
Date: 1994
Medium: Colored pencil and gouache on black paper
Dimensions: 14 1/2 × 17 3/4 in. (36.8 × 45.1 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2020
Object Number: 2021.54.51
Rights and Reproduction: © Fred Tomaselli
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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