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Jacob Cream Crackers

Series TitleGridded Still Lifes
Artist Graham Howe (Australian, born 1950)
Date1977
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 13 5/16 × 17 3/4 inches (33.81 × 45.09 cm)
Sheet: 16 × 19 15/16 inches (40.64 × 50.62 cm)
Credit LineGift of Graham Howe
Object number2020.4.2
SignedStamp on sheet verso, lower left, in black ink: "GRAHAM HOWE"; Signed on sheet verso, lower right, in pencil: "Graham Howe".
InscribedStamp on sheet verso, lower right, in black ink with pencil: "Negative 1977 Reference Number 77/928/57/A / Title: JACOB CREAM CRACKERS / Print 1988 / This print is number 11 from the original negative / ©1977 Reproduction of this photograph is prohibited / without the written consent of the artist."
Markingsnone
Edition/State/Proofed. 11
On View
Not on view
Collections
DescriptionImage of a Jacob & Co Cream Cracker Box on top of a grid composed of dark thread and clear thumbtacks. Individual crackers are displayed in the squares.Gallery Label

To make this still life, Graham Howe created a grid of trapezoids with black twine and pushpins on a board. This creation appears square in the photograph, however, because Howe placed the board at a slanted angle from his camera’s fixed vantage point. He then arranged a cracker box and its contents within this grid, which —through the camera’s lens—made their rectangular shapes appear trapezoidal. Howe’s visual experiment reveals how the camera’s optics impact our spatial perception.

Provenance
Given by the artist to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2020.
Copyright© Graham Howe
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