Diagonal Composition no. 2

1998

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

Jeff Wall produced his first photographs in the 1970s by appropriating the traditional languages of history and still-life painting and merging them with the aesthetics of modern advertising photography. Typically, his work explores racial and social inequity and takes the form of large color transparencies in light boxes, like those used to sell cars and other commercial goods. The shallow three-dimensionality, large scale, and spectral seductiveness of this setup imbue the photographs with a surprising sculptural presence. Diagonal Composition no. 2 is one of the artist’s smaller light boxes and it references—perhaps intentionally—Cubist still lifes from the early 1910s and, through that association, Paul Strand’s From the Viaduct seen elsewhere in the show.

Artwork Details

Overview

Exhibition History

Title: Diagonal Composition no. 2
Artist: Jeff Wall (Canadian, born 1946)
Date: 1998
Medium: Silver dye bleach transparency in light box
Dimensions: Framed: 25 1/8 in. × 29 1/2 in. × 6 7/8 in. (63.8 × 74.9 × 17.5 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Promised Gift of Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary
Curatorial Department: Photographs