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Untitled

Andrew Bush American
1993
Not on view
Andrew Bush's four-year (1979–82) investigation of Bonnettstown Hall, a deteriorating eighteenth-century estate near Kilkenny, Ireland, focused on how, in the artist's words, the manor house itself "disclosed varying degrees of intimacy and privacy." The exquisitely crafted color photographs of the physical remnants of the European aristocratic tradition provide a fantasy glimpse into the lives of generations of inhabitants. A similar investigation of the shared boundaries of public and private lives informs the artist's next body of work—color portraits of drivers in their cars speeding along Los Angeles freeways oblivious to the presence of a fellow traveler and his intelligent camera.


The envelopes continue Bush's interest in the boundaries of communication and rely on the notion that if the representation is convincing enough (in the trompe l'oeil tradition of Harnett and Peto), the mind can be confused into believing that the framed envelopes are real. The artist has carefully considered the shape, color, and size of each envelope and framed each one in a second-hand photographic printing frame, negative holder, or X-ray film holder, giving it a particular personality. Meant to be seen in familial congregations of three or more, each envelope seems to enclose a confidential but undisclosed message. In the late twentieth-century world of electronic communication, Bush's understanding that envelopes, like painted portraits of one's ancestors, will gradually disappear with their untold secrets, is both poignant and prescient.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Untitled
  • Artist: Andrew Bush (American, born 1956)
  • Date: 1993
  • Medium: Chromogenic prints
  • Dimensions: a: 22 5/8 × 18 5/8 × 1 3/16 in. (57.5 × 47.3 × 3 cm)
    b: 16 7/8 × 19 15/16 × 1 3/16 in. (42.8 × 50.6 × 3 cm)
    c: 18 3/16 × 15 3/16 × 11/16 in. (46.2 × 38.6 × 1.8 cm)
    d: 16 5/16 × 13 3/8 × 1 7/16 in. (41.4 × 33.9 × 3.6 cm)
    e: 11 1/8 × 13 1/8 × 11/16 in. (28.3 × 33.4 × 1.7 cm)
    f: 10 11/16 × 12 11/16 × 1 1/8 in. (27.2 × 32.3 × 2.8 cm)
    g: 10 1/16 × 12 1/16 × 1 1/8 in. (25.6 × 30.7 × 2.8 cm)
    h: 9 5/8 × 11 3/4 × 1 7/16 in. (24.5 × 29.8 × 3.7 cm)
    i: 13 3/8 × 8 11/16 × 7/8 in. (33.9 × 22.1 × 2.3 cm)
    j: 11 1/8 × 9 3/16 × 11/16 in. (28.3 × 23.3 × 1.7 cm)
    k: 10 1/8 × 7 9/16 × 11/16 in. (25.7 × 19.2 × 1.8 cm)
    l: 7 3/16 × 10 3/16 × 1 1/4 in. (18.2 × 25.8 × 3.2 cm)
    m: 7 × 9 × 1 3/16 in. (17.8 × 22.8 × 3 cm)
    n: 6 1/8 × 8 1/8 × 11/16 in. (15.6 × 20.7 × 1.7 cm)
    o: 4 11/16 × 6 15/16 × 7/8 in. (11.9 × 17.7 × 2.2 cm)
    p: 6 1/8 × 5 1/16 × 15/16 in. (15.6 × 12.8 × 2.4 cm)
    q: 3 × 4 × 13/16 in. (7.6 × 10.1 × 2.1 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Anonymous Gift, 1993
  • Object Number: 1993.195a–q
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Andrew Bush
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Brushes at Play
Andrew Bush
1990
Woman Caught in Traffic While Heading Southeast on Highway #101 near the Woodland Hills Exit, San Fernando, California, at 5:38 p.m. in the Summer of 1989
Andrew Bush
1989, printed 1991
Man Motoring North at Exactly 55 mph on the Pasadena Freeway on a Late Sunday Afternoon in Early December, 1990
Andrew Bush
1990, printed 1991
Man Traveling Northwest at 60 mph on Highway #101 in the Vicinity of Hollywood, California, on a Late Sunday Afternoon in March 1991 (Possibly Someone in Character)
Andrew Bush
1991
Man Driving Southwest at Approximately 72 mph on Arizona Interstate 40 on an Afternoon of the July 4th Weekend of 1989 (Possible Air Conditioner Malfunction)
Andrew Bush
1989, printed 1991

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