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Classroom (Mortuary School, Pittsburgh)
Classroom (Mortuary School, Pittsburgh)

Classroom (Mortuary School, Pittsburgh)

Artist Lynne Cohen (American, 1944 - 2014)
Date1980
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 7 7/16 × 9 1/2 inches (18.89 × 24.13 cm)
Mount: 15 x 15 inches (38.1 x 38.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2010.46.10
SignedSigned on mount verso, upper left, in pencil: "Cohen"
InscribedOn mount verso, upper left, in pencil: "Classroom in a Mortuary / School / Pittsburgh / 1980"
MarkingsOn mount verso, lower left, in pencil: "619.354.3.10"
On View
Not on view
Collections
DescriptionImage of table and chairs with large casts of a nose, mouth, and an ear hanging on paneled wall.Exhibition History
Rotation 22. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, August 10, 2016- January 8, 2017, no cat.
Gallery Label

Lynne Cohen began photographing empty interior spaces in the early 1970s, including family rooms, offices and classrooms. In part, she was driven by the question: What are these place without people in them? In this image, human presence is implied through figural elements of oversized medical models. The absence of actual people in these spaces, however, charges the settings with an uncomfortable sense of absence and loss.

Provenance
Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2010;
Given by the Hall Family Foundation to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2010.
Copyright© Estate of Lynne Cohen
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