About this artwork
Allen Ruppersberg made around 25 photographic pieces between 1969 and 1975, when he was a pioneering instigator of Conceptual Art in Los Angeles. Ruppersberg explored text-image combinations and mimicked vernacular culture, always with a dry sense of humor and subtle intelligence. For Rona Barrett’s Hollywood, Ruppersberg took a copy of Barrett’s famous gossip magazine into a photo booth. He held the magazine up to his face, hiding all but his eyes, and let the machine snap one picture of each page (four pages per session). Viewing and reading were made into nearly equivalent operations—nearly but not quite. For it is impossible to overlook the artist’s eyes, looking back at us as we try to read, or to ignore that, with his hippie hair and attractive features, Ruppersberg could be male or female, perhaps Rona Barrett herself.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Photography and Media
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Artist
- Allen Rawson Ruppersberg
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Title
- Rona Barrett's Hollywood
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Place
- United States (Artist's nationality)
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Date
- Made 1973
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Medium
- Gelatin silver prints (21)
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Dimensions
- Each image: 5 × 3.8 cm (2 × 1 1/2 in.); Each paper: 20 × 4 cm (7 7/8 × 1 5/8 in.); Frame: 45.4 × 190.5 × 3 cm (17 7/8 × 75 × 1 3/16 in.)
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Credit Line
- A gift in part from the artist and Greene Naftali, New York; through prior purchase with funds provided by of Peabody Fund
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Reference Number
- 2014.1092
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Copyright
- © 1973 Allen Ruppersberg.
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
