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Splash

1980
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
The radical restaging of fine-art photography from a real-life or fact-based medium to one that equally embraced its inherent fictional qualities is precisely what Laurie Simmons and her peers—the first of the newly branded postmodern artists—would achieve in less than a decade of work beginning around 1980. This rare early photograph by Simmons features at least four women clothed in bubbles, including Cindy Sherman. Though clearly directed by Simmons, they swim freely and frolic in the "sea" like brightly colored tropical fish in an aquarium.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Splash
  • Artist: Laurie Simmons (American, born 1949)
  • Date: 1980
  • Medium: Silver dye bleach print
  • Dimensions: Image: 16 × 23 in. (40.6 × 58.4 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Promised Gift of Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary
  • Rights and Reproduction:

    © 2022 Laurie Simmons Courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York

  • Curatorial Department: Photographs