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Hands Framing New York Harbor

1971
Not on view
In 1971, the curator and publisher Willoughby Sharp commissioned twenty-seven artists to create performance works on Pier 18, a decrepit waterfront site in Lower Manhattan. Because the location could not accommodate viewers, the artists’ actions were communicated only through photographs made by Harry Shunk and Janos Kender. Baldessari’s witty performance entailed inserting his hand between himself and the camera lens—a swift yet resonant gesture capturing how we frame the visual field outside of an art context.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Hands Framing New York Harbor
  • Artist: John Baldessari (American, National City, California 1931–2020 Los Angeles)
  • Artist: Harry Shunk (German, Reudnitz 1924–2006 New York (?))
  • Artist: János (Jean) Kender (Hungarian, Pécs 1937–2009)
  • Date: 1971
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: 25.4 x 18.0 cm (10 x 7 1/16 in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1992
  • Object Number: 1992.5111
  • Rights and Reproduction: Shunk-Kender © Roy Lichtenstein Foundation
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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