Four large-scale color images in this exhibition reinterpret masterworks of painting as photographs. In some cases fashioned as an homage, in others a critique, these works combine elements of historical paintings with traits particular to photography to create images with a unique and powerful presence. Examples include Rineke Dijkstra’s Hel. Poland, August 12, 1998 (1998), Andres Serrano’s Black Supper (1990, printed 1992), Starn Twins’ Large Blue Film Picasso (1988–89), and Mickalene Thomas’ Le dejeuner sur l’herbe: Le Trois Femmes Noires (2010). These works were influenced respectively by Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (c. 1486), Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper (1494–99), Pablo Picasso’s Deux femmes nues assises (1921), and Édouard Manet’s Le dejeuner sur l’herbe (1863).

Curated by

Senior Curator of Contemporary Art and Department Head, Kristen Hileman