The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 24, 2022

Mini-Bike for Sale, Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

c. 1970

Bill Owens

(American, b. 1938)

American, 20th century

Gelatin silver print (printed 2005)

Image: 33.5 x 43.6 cm (13 3/16 x 17 3/16 in.); Paper: 40.4 x 50.4 cm (15 7/8 x 19 13/16 in.)

Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2017.309

Edition: 1/15

Location

not on view

Description

This quintessential image from Owens’s series Leisure addresses the deflation of the American Dream in the early 1970s America. The artist’s photographs convey both the smug comfort of suburban middle-class affluence and an undercurrent of dissatisfaction and disillusionment.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Written in pencil on verso: “BO-1412M”

Inscription

Written in pencil on verso: “4000”

Inscription

Written in pencil on verso: “Bill Owens (signed)”

Inscription

Stamped in black ink on verso: “© BILL OWENS/EDITION 15/3AP/NUMBER 1 (written in pencil)/PRINTED 2005 (written in pencil)”

Inscription

Written in pencil on verso: “2476.1”

Inscription

Written in pencil on verso: “boA98LB136”

Bill Owens

American photographer, born 1938
Citations
Owens, Bill, and Robert Harshorn Shimshak. Leisure. [New York, N.Y.]: Fotofolio, 2004.
Claudia Zanfi (ed.), Bill Owens, Bologna, Italy: Damiani, 2007. With an introduction by A.M. Holmes.
Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2017.309