The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 18, 2024
#319
1990
(American, 1957–2012)
Image: 51 x 61 cm (20 1/16 x 24 in.); Matted: 76.2 x 81.3 cm (30 x 32 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1996.235
© Willie R. Middlebrook
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
Digital and analog photographs are usually multiples, but this one is a unique print—truly one of a kind.Description
For his series Portraits of My People, Willie Robert Middlebrook shot traditional, posed portraits of friends and family, then transformed them in the darkroom into charged, one-of-a-kind compositions that suggest a struggle between realistic representation, emotional expression, and abstraction. Middlebrook enlarged each image onto photographic paper, but instead of submerging it in developer, he incorporated painting techniques by brushing, spraying, rubbing, and dripping the chemicals onto the sheet. Who does Middlebrook depict? “My drive . . . ,” he said, “comes from parents endowing strong feelings about the ideals and integrity of being black. . . . Thus the majority of what I do has and always will center around my people.”- (Schneider Gallery, Inc., Chicago, IL)June 3, 1996The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: P. 245
- Beyond Truth: Photography after the Shutter. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2019).Portraiture: American Photography 1960 to the Present. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 1-September 13, 2009).Willie Robert Middlebrook Photographs: Portraits of My People. The Cleveland Museum of Art (January 19-March 29, 1996).
- {{cite web|title=#319|url=false|author=Willie Robert Middlebrook|year=1990|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1996.235