id: 157343
accession number: 1994.205
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1994.205
updated: 2025-02-09 04:58:49.177000
Camera Obscura Image of Houses across the Street in Our Bedroom, 1991. Abelardo Morell (American, 1948-). Gelatin silver print; image: 45.4 x 57 cm (17 7/8 x 22 7/16 in.); paper: 50.2 x 60.5 cm (19 3/4 x 23 13/16 in.); matted: 61 x 76.2 cm (24 x 30 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Linda Butler and Steven Nissen and Judith K. and Sterling McMillan III 1994.205
title: Camera Obscura Image of Houses across the Street in Our Bedroom
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1991
creation date earliest: 1991
creation date latest: 1991
current location:
creditline: Gift of Linda Butler and Steven Nissen and Judith K. and Sterling McMillan III
copyright:
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culture: America
technique: gelatin silver print
department: Photography
collection: PH - American 1951-Present
type: Photograph
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Abelardo Morell (American, 1948-) - artist
Abelardo Morell American, b. Cuba, 1948- Havana-born Abe Morell became interested in photography while a student of John McKee at Bowdoin College in Maine (B.A., 1977). Fascinated by the surreal, he initially produced manipulated prints of outlandish scenarios. The work of Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, however, showed Morell "that straight photography could pack more surrealism into a picture" than he could achieve through manipulation. Adopting a 35mm straight technique, in 1978 he traveled to Miami and New York to work as a street photographer in the vein of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander, continuing in this format at Yale University (M.F.A., 1981). In the late 1980s, Morell began two series for which he is best known: large-scale black-and-white photographs of interior spaces made with a self-built camera obscura, and still lifes of pictures of the pictures in books. The images provide clever post-modern commentary on the nature of photographic representation by referencing the medium's beginnings while simultaneously celebrating the ephemeral magic of light and shadow. Devoid of human subjects, these psychologically complex interior landscapes allude to the changing spheres of childhood and family, and our understanding of history itself, in contemporary middle-class society. Morell has received fellowships from the Cintas Foundation (1992-93) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1993-94). He currently chairs the photography department at Massachusetts College of Art and lives in Quincy. A.W.
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measurements: Image: 45.4 x 57 cm (17 7/8 x 22 7/16 in.); Paper: 50.2 x 60.5 cm (19 3/4 x 23 13/16 in.); Matted: 61 x 76.2 cm (24 x 30 in.)
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inscriptions:
inscription: Written in pencil on verso: "ABELARDO MORELL [signed] / CAMERA OBSCURA IMAGE OF HOUSES / ACROSS THE STREET IN OUR BEDROOM"
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remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 1996-11-24T05:00:00
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).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* {'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'}
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PROVENANCE
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
page number: Reproduced: P. 248
url:
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IMAGES