id: 159459
accession number: 1996.235
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1996.235
updated: 2024-03-26 02:00:30.572000
Portraits of My People: #319, 1990. Willie Robert Middlebrook (American, 1957–2012). Gelatin silver print, photographic painting; image: 51 x 61 cm (20 1/16 x 24 in.); matted: 76.2 x 81.3 cm (30 x 32 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1996.235 © Willie R. Middlebrook
title: #319
title in original language:
series: Portraits of My People
series in original language:
creation date: 1990
creation date earliest: 1990
creation date latest: 1990
current location:
creditline: John L. Severance Fund
copyright: © Willie R. Middlebrook
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culture: America, 20th century
technique: gelatin silver print, photographic painting
department: Photography
collection: PH - American 1951-Present
type: Photograph
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Willie Robert Middlebrook (American, 1957–2012) - artist
Willie Robert Middlebrook American, 1957- The images of Willie Middlebrook's African-American community explore, question, and communicate his social and aesthetic concerns. Middlebrook learned photography in the early 1970s, completing courses at the Communicative Arts Academy in his native Compton, California (1975), and receiving a degree from Compton Community College (A.A., 1978). Since that time he has lectured, curated, and exhibited throughout the United States, completed a number of public commissions, and taught in the Los Angeles area. Middlebrook draws inspiration from his family and roots, which he credits for his drive and ideals. Using a complex developing technique to create dense, multitoned, painterly images, he conveys the notion of an eroding cultural identity in his large-scale portraits of friends and family begun in the mid-1980s. In 1996 the Cleveland Museum of Art held a one-person exhibition of the series, Willie Robert Middlebrook Photographs: Portraits of My People. Middlebrook has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1982, 1993) and commendations from the city of Los Angeles (1987, 1989, 1991), and in 1988 was named "Hometown Hero" by the city of Compton. He was also awarded an artist-in-residency from Light Work, Syracuse (1992). A.W.
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measurements: Image: 51 x 61 cm (20 1/16 x 24 in.); Matted: 76.2 x 81.3 cm (30 x 32 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work: unique print
support materials:
inscriptions:
inscription: Written in black felt pen on verso: "© Willie R Middlebrook [signed] 31992/319"
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Portraiture: American Photography 1960 to the Present
opening date: 2009-06-01T00:00:00
Portraiture: American Photography 1960 to the Present. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 1-September 13, 2009).
title: Beyond Truth: Photography after the Shutter
opening date: 2019-02-10T05:00:00
Beyond Truth: Photography after the Shutter. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2019).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* {'description': 'Willie Robert Middlebrook Photographs: Portraits of My People. The Cleveland Museum of Art (January 19-March 29, 1996).', 'opening_date': '1996-01-19T00:00:00'}
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PROVENANCE
(Schneider Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL)
date:
footnotes:
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: June 3, 1996
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
digital description:
wall description:
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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. 245
url:
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IMAGES