The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 4, 2023

Suburbia

Nursing Your Baby, Tri-Valley Area, Northern California

c. 1971

Bill Owens

(American, b. 1938)

America

Gelatin silver print

Image: 15.8 x 21.5 cm (6 1/4 x 8 7/16 in.); Paper: 20.2 x 25.2 cm (7 15/16 x 9 15/16 in.)

Gift of George Stephanopoulos 2019.278

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Since 1970, more Americans have lived in suburbs than in the cities they surround.

Description

In Suburbia, Bill Owens addresses suburban life in Northern California and the deflation of the American Dream in the 1970s. Contemporary photographer Gregory Crewdson likened Owens’s images of suburban America to the writings and pictures of Edward Hopper, Walker Evans, Diane Arbus, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver in the way they “find unexpected beauty and mystery within the American vernacular.”

Inscriptions

Inscription

Written in pencil on verso: “V0100/2500”

Inscription

Stamped in black ink on verso: “042081”

Inscription

Imprinted in black type on white paper label adhered to verso with cellophane tape: “R-1 Nursing your baby makes you closer to him than if you fed/him with a bottle. Most women don’t understand what that/closeness is.”

Inscription

Stamped in black ink on verso: “© PHOTO/BILL OWENS”

Inscription

Imprinted on white adhesive label on verso: “All rights reserved/This photo must be returned”

Inscription

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

Inscription

Written in black ink on verso: [illegible number scribbled out and circled]”

Inscription

Written in black ink on verso: 17 (circled)”

Inscription

Written in blue ink on verso: “© BILL OWENS/BBM [stamped in black ink] Jeroboam, Inc [written in blue ink]”

Inscription

Written in black marker on verso: “R-1”

Inscription

Stamped in black ink on verso: “USE WITH/JEROBOAM INC. CREDIT LINE/RETURN TO CATEGORY

Inscription

Written in black ink on verso: “Use with Jeroboam Credit/Families-Mom/Nursing [remainder of title scribbled out]”

Inscription

Written in blue ink on verso: “BO-60-11/79”

Inscription

Written in pencil on verso: “BOA0010”

Inscription

Commercially imprinted throughout verso: “Agfa”

Bill Owens

American photographer, born 1938
Provenance
?-2019
George Stephanpoulos [1961-], New York, NY
December 2, 2019
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2019.278