Last Seen . . .
Sophie Calle
(French, born in 1953)
1991
Medium/TechniquePhotographs, chromogenic prints (Ektacolor), and text, with lacquer frames
Dimensions137.8 x 163.2 cm (54 1/4 x 64 1/4 in.)
Credit LineErnest Wadsworth Longfellow Fund
Accession number1992.530a-b
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPhotographs
Collections
In 1990 Calle created a series photographs in Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of the empty spaces left by recently stolen paintings and paired them with framed texts. In this case, the missing object is Chez Tortoni, a small portrait of a patron in a Parisian café by Edouard Manet (1832- 1883). Calle draws her text from conversations with museum staff, whom she asked for memories of the stolen artwork. Together, their voices represent a collective attempt to create an “image” of the painting that may serve as a placeholder for the work itself.
ProvenanceThe artist; to Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, 1991; with Galerie Crousel-Robelin, Paris; with Barabara Krakow Gallery, Boston, 1992; to MFA, Boston, 1992Copyright© 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
late 18th century
late 18th century
