Washington, D.C.
Artist
Lee Friedlander
(American, born 1934)
Date1962; printed ca. 2001
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 12 13/16 × 8 1/2 inches (32.54 × 21.59 cm)
Sheet: 13 15/16 × 11 inches (35.4 × 27.94 cm)
Sheet: 13 15/16 × 11 inches (35.4 × 27.94 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.1386
SignedSigned on sheet verso, center, in pencil.;
Artist's stamp on sheet verso, center, in black ink: "This photograph is not released for publication / or for commerical use of any kind. For permission / communicate with Lee Friedland, 52 South / Mountain Road, New City, N.Y. 10956. / © LEE FRIEDLANDER" .
InscribedInscribed on sheet verso, bottom, in pencil: "Wash DC 1962"
MarkingsOn sheet verso, lower left, in pencil: "68-36-01";
On sheet verso, lower right, in pencil: "LF.3883.Y", "1-5"
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of room with television with a human eye on the screen. Television is on the far left, floor lamp in center, window with curtins and a/c unit on the right half, and a chair on the far right.Exhibition History
Rotation 22. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Kansas City, MO, August 10, 2016- January 8, 2017, no cat.
Lee Friedlander’s series The Little Screens depicts photographs of television sets in empty interiors. These settings are devoid of people, but often feature faces cropped by the TV sets, such that they seem to gaze into the rooms. The images can suggest a fascination with television as well as recognition of the medium’s unnerving capacity to mesmerize. When photographer Walker Evans wrote about this series in 1963, he interpreted Friedlander’s work as a critique of postwar consumerism and conservative family ideals. Evans described Friedlander’s photographs as “deft, witty, spanking little poems of hate.”
Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO, 2001;
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.
Copyright© Lee Friedlander
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