Tent–Camera Image on Ground: Rooftop View of the Brooklyn Bridge–Brooklyn Side, 2011

Details

Abelardo Morell (B. 1948)
Tent–Camera Image on Ground: Rooftop View of the Brooklyn Bridge–Brooklyn Side, 2011
archival pigment print, flush–mounted on board
signed and numbered '1/6' in ink and credited, titled and dated on affixed artist's label (flush mount, verso)
image: 44 3/4 x 60 in. (113.7 x 152.4 cm.)
overall: 57 3/8 x 71 7/8 in. (145.7 x 182.6 cm.)
This work is number 1 from the edition of 6.

Provenance

Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York;
acquired from the above by the present owner, 2013.

Special Notice

Please note lots marked with a square will be moved to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn) on the last day of the sale. Lots are not available for collection at Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services until after the third business day following the sale. All lots will be stored free of charge for 30 days from the auction date at Christie’s Rockefeller Center or Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn). Operation hours for collection from either location are from 9.30 am to 5.00 pm, Monday-Friday. After 30 days from the auction date property may be moved at Christie’s discretion. Please contact Post-Sale Services to confirm the location of your property prior to collection. Lots may not be collected during the day of their move to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn). Please consult the Lot Collection Notice for collection information.

Lot Essay

I have always loved The 19th Century photographs of the American West by Carleton Watkins, Timothy O’Sullivan and William Henry Jackson but, when I had a commission to photograph these landscapes anew, the work of these men daunted me—so much so that, for a long time, I couldn’t imagine how I would approach making landscape images myself. But like many immigrants, I felt moved to explore the vastness of my adopted country. To picture America’s national parks, I invented a device—part tent, part periscope—to show how the immediacy of the ground we walk on enhances our understanding of the panorama, the larger world it helps to form. I wanted to find a way to make these well-known views of familiar and iconic places into my own private discoveries. —Abelardo Morell

More from Photographs Including Property Sold to Benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation

View All