id:			165692
accession number:	2007.95
share license status:	Copyrighted
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2007.95
updated:		2023-01-11 17:14:14.034000

Untitled , c. 1926. Édouard Léon Théodore Mesens (Belgian, 1903–1971). Collodion silver printing-out paper, photogram; image: 17.9 x 23.8 cm (7 1/16 x 9 3/8 in.); mounted: 28.2 x 35.8 cm (11 1/8 x 14 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 2007.95 © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SABAM, Brussels

title:				Untitled 
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			c. 1926
creation date earliest:		1921
creation date latest:		1931
current location:		
creditline:			John L. Severance Fund
copyright:			© 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SABAM, Brussels

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culture:	Belgium, 20th century
technique:	collodion silver printing-out paper, photogram
department:	Photography
collection:	PH - Misc. 20th Century
type:		Photograph
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Édouard Léon Théodore Mesens (Belgian, 1903–1971)  - artist

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measurements: Image: 17.9 x 23.8 cm (7 1/16 x 9 3/8 in.); Mounted: 28.2 x 35.8 cm (11 1/8 x 14 1/8 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

	inscription:	letter from nephew
	translation:	
	remark:		

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography
	opening date:   2014-10-19T00:00:00
	<i>Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 19, 2014-January 11, 2015).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* 

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PROVENANCE

	The artist's family
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	Adrien Dubucq, Belgium
	date: 
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	citations: 	


	(Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY)
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	(Ubu Gallery, New York, NY)
	date: early 90s-2000
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	David Raymond [b.1979], New York, NY
	date: 2000-2007
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 2007-
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact:


digital description:


wall description:
Writer, composer, art dealer, and key figure in the Surrealist movement in Belgium, Mesens experimented with photograms only from 1924 to 1930. This image employs everyday objects: two leaves, one or more drinking glasses, and razor blades. The latter may be an autobiographical reference: a bit of a dandy, Mesens shaved three times a day. The seeming solidity of the objects, ranging from solid to translucent and shadowy to crisp, was altered by leaving them on the paper for varying amounts of time. His use of collodion printing-out paper, which develops slowly in sunlight without a chemical developer, suggests this may have been one of his earliest experiments with photography.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E. Hinson, Ian Walker, and Lisa Kurzner. Forbidden Games: Surrealist and Modernist Photography : the David Raymond Collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art. 2014.
	page number: 	Mentioned: p. 81; reproduced: p. 83; mentioned: p. 227.
	url:		

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IMAGES