Stellar by Starlight
Artist
Anne Noggle
(American, 1922 - 2005)
Date1986
Mediumgelatin silver print
DimensionsImage (Each Print): 18 13/16 × 13 1/2 in. (47.8 × 34.3 cm)
Support (Each Print): 8 3/4 × 7 in. (22.2 × 17.8 cm)
Support (Each Print): 8 3/4 × 7 in. (22.2 × 17.8 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of Jim Holbrook, 2017
Object number2017.7.2a-c
Description#1 – Head and shoulders view of a woman at the bottom of the composition. She is shrouded in fog and bubbles and wearing dangling earrings and a tiara. To her right is a male figure, turned toward her with arms partically raised; he has bubbles on his left shoulder. At upper right and toward the center is a concentration of tiny white dots.#2 -- Nude woman rising from center of composition, partially shrouded in mist, with arms stretched upward toward corners of page. She is wearing large eyeglasses, a tiara, and earrings. In foreground is back of man’s head at left and three-quarter view of another man’s hand, arm, back and back of head at right.
#3 – Partial figure of a woman seen in profile with upraised right arm and face turned to look at camera. Her hand appears to grasp a flash of light and her body is covered in soap suds. At bottom left is the head of a man with body submerged in water and his hand reaching toward the central figure. Bottom edge of composition is filled with suds and vapor.
eMuseum Notes
The photograph was made in a hot
tub in Noggle’s back yard in Albuquerque. Jim Holbrook, the donor, worked with
Noggle to create this photograph and makes an appearance in it as the male
figure at the right of the picture. Holbrook was Noggle’s studio assistant for
a time as well as a close friend.
The title of the triptych refers to the popular 1944 song “Stella by Starlight.”
Noggle writes about this image: “I see my ideas as a blend of imagination and humor with underlying humanistic meaning. In “Stellar by Starlight” I had been reading a book, “The Hero Within,” addressed specifically to women, and the ideas came of an older woman, mysterious, joyful, and powerful – a mythological figure being adored by mankind. I couldn’t have done it without the humorous touches.” (quoted in the exhibition catalog “Ann Noggle,”Photographers’ Gallery, London, 1988).
Wearing her birthday suit, a tiara, and a pair
of eyeglasses, the artist is seen here ascending resplendently from her
backyard hot tub, surrounded by an appreciative audience of young men. Noggle
sometimes described her photographs as chronicling “the saga of the fallen
flesh,” but the expression on her face tells us her lust for life remains
undiminished in the face of fading eyesight, an expanding waistline, and other
indignities of age.
On View
Not on viewTerms
- self-portraits
- women
- men
- elderly
- joy
- celebrations
- sexuality
- tiaras
- fantasy
- construction
- hot tubs