Portrait of a man
Artist
Michael Spano
(American, born 1949)
Date1986
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 22 5/8 x 17 inches (57.47 x 43.18 cm)
Sheet: 24 x 19 inches (60.96 x 48.26 cm)
Sheet: 24 x 19 inches (60.96 x 48.26 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2011.67.57
Signedon front, in pencil: "5/25 Michael Spano 94"
Inscribedon back, in pencil: LMG owns MSR596004
MarkingsEditioned and dated on recto
Edition/State/Proofed. 5/25
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of a balding man in profile; he is wearing a jacket and the background is blurred.Exhibition HistoryRotation 23. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City,
MO, January 18 – May 28, 2017, no cat.
Michael Spano made this image from a large format negative that he briefly exposed to light while he developed it. This technique, known as solarization, produces a subtle reversal of tones. Positive turns to negative in some areas of the image, often by chance. The resulting photograph isolates the profile of this man from his body and the background, which are inverted as negative tones. This process gives the portrait an eerie, almost supernatural charge.
Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2011;
Given by the Hall Family Foundation to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2011.
Copyright© Michael Spano
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