Red Book II
Artist
Thomas Barrow
(American, born 1938)
Date1987
Mediumpigment print
DimensionsImage: 27 × 18 1/2 in. (68.6 × 47 cm)
Support: 28 × 19 1/2 in. (71.1 × 49.5 cm)
Mat: 35 1/2 × 25 1/2 in. (90.2 × 64.8 cm)
Support: 28 × 19 1/2 in. (71.1 × 49.5 cm)
Mat: 35 1/2 × 25 1/2 in. (90.2 × 64.8 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of Ellen Landis in memory of Frederick Cohn, M.D., 2014
Object number2014.18
DescriptionPhotograph of an octagonal Chinese checkers board game, with the six-point star-shaped area filled with black marbles, to which seven Polaroid SX-70 photographs are attached, six around the edges and one at center.eMuseum Notes
This photograph, itself a work of art, shows one of the artist’s three-dimensional constructions. Its title refers to the book “The Quotations of Mao Zedong,” which is colloquially known as the Little Red Book. The book includes 427 quotations by Mao Zedong. After it was published in the 1960s, every citizen of China was encouraged to own a copy of the book and to follow its guidelines for living. By juxtaposing the book with the board game known as Chinese Checkers, the artist suggests a political game of chance.
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