The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of October 8, 2026

A collage depicts two people standing at the foot of the pedestal for the Cleveland Museum of Art statue of The Thinker. The statue depicts a nude man seated resting his chin on his fist. The collage is created from fragments of black-and-white family photos pasted together. People's faces show throughout the collage, especially on the pedestal and building behind the statue. Other parts of photographs are fragmented beyond recognition. Some show scrawls of writing.

The Thinkers

2014

Vik Muniz

(American, b. 1961)
America
digital chromogenic print
Framed: 270.4 x 180.3 cm (106 7/16 x 71 in.); Unframed: 270.4 x 180.3 cm (106 7/16 x 71 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2015.16
© Vik Muniz / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Just as the museum is a storehouse for civilizations’ cultural past, The Thinkers is a repository for individuals’ pasts.

Description

Scale is a critical component in the experience of viewing this photographic enlargement of a collage. From a distance, you see a couple posing around 1940 by Rodin’s The Thinker at the south facade of the Cleveland Museum of Art. When approached, that image dissolves into hundreds of snippets of other people’s family photos pasted together. Even the overall image is based on a snapshot from the artist’s collection of found photographs. Their original context and meaning have been lost, yet the images evoke nostalgia for our own family mementos and encourage us to think about the nature and uses of photography then and now.
  • Lago, Pedro Corrêa do. Vik Muniz: Catalogue Raisonné, 1987-2015: Everything So Far = Tudo Até Agora. [Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]: Capivara, 2015. Reproduced: Vol. 2, P. 852
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 78-79
    Tannenbaum, Barbara. “Acquisitions 2015: Photography.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 56, no. 2 (March/April 2016): 28-29. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 29 archive.org
    Ollman, Arthur. "Vik Muniz: The Rebirth of Wonder." In Vik Muniz. Arthur Ollman and Diana Wechsler,11-55. Munich : DelMonico Books ; Minneapolis : Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, 2016. Reproduced: p. 35, mentioned: p. 45
  • BIG: Photographs from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 12-October 9, 2016).
  • {{cite web|title=The Thinkers|url=false|author=Vik Muniz|year=2014|access-date=08 October 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2015.16