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Agam (from the series Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed)
Agam (from the series Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed)
Agam (from the series Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed)

Agam (from the series Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed)

Artist (American, born 1942)
Printer (American, born 1963)
Date1997-2001 (printed 2015)
Mediumpigment prints
DimensionsImage (b): 21 15/16 × 17 1/2 in. (55.7 × 44.5 cm)
Support (b): 23 1/16 × 20 1/8 in. (58.6 × 51.1 cm)
Mat (b): 28 × 22 1/8 in. (71.1 × 56.2 cm)
Image (a): 21 15/16 × 17 in. (55.7 × 43.2 cm)
Support (a): 24 × 20 1/8 in. (61 × 51.1 cm)
Mat (a): 28 1/8 × 22 1/16 in. (71.4 × 56 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of Gay Block, 2015
Object number2015.19.2ab
DescriptionThe piece consists of two framed panels. The panel at left is text on a red background. The panel at right shows a head and shoulders view of a woman facing the camera wearing a gold geometric necklace and leaning on the back of a chair covered with a fur coat.
Text Entries
This self-portrait is from Block’s series Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed, in which she uses the camera to explore her difficult relationship with her mother. She photographs herself wearing a necklace designed by the artist Agam, which her mother wore to one of Block’s exhibition receptions. The text tells the story of that night and finds the artist coming to a new interpretation of what the necklace meant to her mother, marking a turning point in her understanding of  their lifetime of disconnection.
Gay Block created the series “Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed” and originally made them as chromogenic prints. In more recent years, she has scanned these early negatives and is making pigment prints.

 

The piece is a diptych, two images meant to be shown framed with edges abutting.

 

See “Bertha Alyce: Mother exPosed,” (UNM Press, 2003), p. 226-227.
When the diptych is on display, the frames for each piece should be touching.
Based on the inscriptions found on the verso of the diptych, the date for when each work was created is different. Therefore per the Curator of Photograph's suggestion the date range was changed from 1997 (printed 2015) to 1997-2001 (printed 2015).  Please see inscriptions field for details.
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