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Bernice

John Ahearn American
1981
Not on view
Working in the South Bronx, in deliberate counterpoint to Manhattan’s more established art neighborhoods downtown, Ahearn often selected subjects from his neighborhood. In line with his participatory practice, the artist would collaborate with his subjects in choosing their dress and the poses in which they would be cast in plaster. Painted in robust acrylics, the colors of his "community portraits" capture the vibrancy of clothing and the diversity of skin tones of the multiethnic neighborhood in which he worked. Ahearn would often take Polaroids of his sitters as records of casting sessions, and consequently the reliefs are conditioned by the color range of the film.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Bernice
  • Artist: John Ahearn (American, born Binghamton, New York, 1951)
  • Date: 1981
  • Medium: Painted plaster
  • Dimensions: 28 3/8 × 25 × 5 1/2 in., 32.8 lb. (72.1 × 63.5 × 14 cm, 14.9 kg)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Gift of Barbara and Eugene Schwartz, 1988
  • Object Number: 1988.417.4
  • Rights and Reproduction: © John Ahearn
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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