Hertha Thiele #7
Matt Saunders
(American, born in 1975)
2007–11
Medium/TechniqueOil on linen
Dimensions31 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches (80 x 60 cm)
Credit LineJames N. Krebs Purchase Fund for 21st Century Paintings
Accession number2011.1899
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
Saunders’s ghostly portraits of silver and light were inspired by Hertha Thiele #7, his thinly painted profile of a Weimar-era German silver-screen star. From found photographs of her, Saunders worked backward to paint “negatives” on linen. He experimented by projecting light through the linen onto photographic paper and found the paint alternately refracts or blocks light. He hand-develops each sheet to produce original reproductions he terms "ersatz paintings," like Field Day (Crowd) #4, his imagined film-still with Thiele at center.
Provenance2011, sold by the artist to the MFA. (Accession Date: November 16, 2011)
CopyrightReproduced with permission.
