{ "data": { "id": 154813, "accession_number": "1989.395", "share_license_status": "Copyrighted", "tombstone": "Untitled (Melissa's Hand and Thorns), 1988. Christopher Pekoc (American, 1941-). Gelatin silver print, gold foil, paper, and thread; image: 66.1 x 63.8 cm (26 x 25 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Herbert Ascherman Jr., May Show Purchase Award for Photography, 1990, 1989.395. \u00a9 1988 C. Pekoc", "current_location": null, "title": "Untitled (Melissa's Hand and Thorns)", "creation_date": "1988", "creation_date_earliest": 1988, "creation_date_latest": 1988, "artists_tags": [ "May Show", "male" ], "culture": [ "America" ], "technique": "gelatin silver print, gold foil, paper, and thread", "support_materials": [], "department": "Photography", "collection": "PH - American 1951-Present", "type": "Photograph", "measurements": "Image: 66.1 x 63.8 cm (26 x 25 1/8 in.)", "dimensions": { "image": { "height": 0.661, "height_inch": 26, "height_inch_fraction": 0.0, "width": 0.638, "width_inch": 25, "width_inch_fraction": 0.125 } }, "state_of_the_work": null, "edition_of_the_work": null, "copyright": "\u00a9 1988 C. Pekoc", "inscriptions": [ { "inscription": "Scratched on verso: \"\u00a9 / C. Pekoc / 1.9.8.8\"; written in black marker on verso of mount: \"Artist: Christopher Pekoc / (216) 751-0873 / Title: Untitled (Melissa's Hand and Thorns) / Size (Image) 26\" H x 25 1/8\" W / Size (Frame) 33 1/4\" H x 32 1/4\" W / Medium: Photographs, coated cover stock paper, metal foil paper, thread\" ", "inscription_translation": null, "inscription_remark": null, "sortorder": null } ], "exhibitions": { "current": [ { "id": 311735, "title": "The May Show: 70th Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists and Craftsmen of the Western Reserve", "description": "The May Show: 70th Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists and Craftsmen of the Western Reserve. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 28-August 6, 1989).", "opening_date": "1989-06-28T04:00:00" }, { "id": 310333, "title": "The Year in Review for 1989", "description": "The Year in Review for 1989. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 6-April 15, 1990).", "opening_date": "1990-02-06T05:00:00" }, { "id": 311875, "title": "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art", "description": "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997).", "opening_date": "1996-11-24T05:00:00" } ], "legacy": [ { "description": "CMA, Feb. 6 - April 15, 1990: \"Year in Review 1989,\" CMA Bulletin, 77 (Feb. 1990), p. 68, no. 48.", "opening_date": "1990-02-06T00:00:00" }, { "description": "Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, 1991: \"Christopher Pekoc: New Works,\" no exhibition catalogue.", "opening_date": "1991-01-01T00:00:00" }, { "description": "CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: \"Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art.\"", "opening_date": "1997-02-02T00:00:00" } ] }, "provenance": [], "find_spot": null, "related_works": [], "former_accession_numbers": [], "did_you_know": null, "early_education_description": null, "artlens_description": null, "description": "A draftsman and painter, Christopher Pekoc has been making collages since 1988. Photographs from his large inventory of images are cut, folded, scratched, drawn on, and perforated. Using a sewing machine, he stitches these together with materials such as coated paper, foil, and color photocopies. Many of the photographs Pekoc incorporates into his collages depict friends and acquaintances whose physical appearances intrigue him. In this mysterious, psychologically charged work, the artist uses images of thorns and a cut-and-sewn photograph of a solitary arm and hand (a favorite motif) to suggest human vulnerability.", "external_resources": { "wikidata": [ "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79942434" ], "internet_archive": [] }, "citations": [ { "citation": "Christopher Pekoc Entry Card to 1989 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.", "page_number": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMS18025" }, { "citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.", "page_number": "Reproduced: P. 267", "url": "" }, { "citation": "Grove, Jeffrey, \"From Neoclassical to The NEO Show\", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 45 no. 01, January 2005", "page_number": "Mentioned & reproduced: p. 8-9", "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2005-01/page/8" }, { "citation": "Pekoc, Christopher, and Henry Adams. The Beauty of Damage: The World of Christopher Pekoc. Cleveland, Ohio: Convivium33 Gallery, 2008.", "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 21", "url": "" } ], "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1989.395", "images": {}, "alternate_images": [], "creditline": "Herbert Ascherman Jr., May Show Purchase Award for Photography, 1990", "image_credit": null, "sketchfab_id": null, "sketchfab_url": null, "gallery_donor_text": null, "athena_id": 154813, "creators": [ { "id": 769, "description": "Christopher Pekoc (American, 1941-)", "extent": null, "qualifier": null, "role": "artist", "biography": "Christopher Pekoc American, 1941- Trained as a painter at Kent State University (1968-70), Cleveland-born Christopher Pekoc has worked extensively with mixed-media collage since 1987. To create his works Pekoc combines photogenerated imagery, often fragments of body parts and menacing objects such as thorns, spikes, and severed wings, with paint, glue, shellac, and other materials. In 1992 he was one of 11 Cleveland artists invited to participate in a poster project sponsored by the Cleveland Health Issues Task Force, Ohio's oldest aids organization. Working from the insights of Jim Kilonsky, one of his former students who was hiv positive, Pekoc fabricated his commission using as a central motif the hand-as a symbol of creation, compassion, and healing. Pekoc has had one-person exhibitions at the Akron Art Institute (1978), Kenyon College (1986), and the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art (1991), and has been awarded fellowships by the Ohio Arts Council (1990, 1994). He lives in Cleveland, teaching painting at Case Western Reserve University. A.W.
Biographical information exists in the Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.", "name_in_original_language": null, "birth_year": "1941", "use_in_caption": true, "include_extent": false, "weight": 1 } ], "legal_status": "accessioned", "accession_date": "1990-01-29T00:00:00", "sortable_date": 1988, "date_added_to_oa": null, "date_text": "1988", "collapse_artists": false, "on_loan": false, "recently_acquired": false, "record_type": "object", "conservation_statement": null, "has_conservation_images": false, "cover_accession_number": null, "is_nazi_era_provenance": false, "impression": null, "alternate_titles": [], "is_highlight": false, "updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:51:31.226000" } }