Images(2)

#5 from Portrait Series – Schnitzel

Artist Alex Traube (American, born 1946)

Date1978

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 8 3/8 × 5 3/4 in. (21.3 × 14.6 cm)
Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Support: 14 × 11 in. (35.6 × 27.9 cm)

ClassificationsPhotograph

Credit LineGift of David R. and Susan J. Hill, 2022

Object number2022.12.1

DescriptionVertical composition with photograph of a scantily clad young woman with prominent eyeliner and short, light-colored hair whose image is somewhat obscured by an enlarged fingerprint. Below the photographic image is text handwritten by artist in black ink: I called her “Schnitzel” because of her thick German accent. She // wanted to come out west with me, but I refused her. She was // there waiting when I returned. Yet, all I could feel during our // last hurried lunch together was regret + guilt and a desire to leave. // Alex Traube 1978
Text Entries

Emuseum Notes

Alex Traube came to New Mexico in 1974 to concentrate on making art and in this image he reflects on what he left behind. Traube takes a radical approach to image-making, using a photograph of an anonymous woman taken by someone else and then daring to write directly on the surface of the photograph with ink. His story is also very personal, a shift from a previous standard that valued a sense of objectivity.

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