The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Pixelated black-and-white computer composite of multiple White men and women's faces that have been used to generate a headshot of a face, looking at us and with dark hair smoothed back, dark eyes looking out at the viewer, and thin lips pressed in a straight line with a very faint hint of facial hair on the upper lip. A hazy outline reverberates around the head.

Androgyny (6 Men + 6 Women)

1982, printed 1999

Nancy Burson

(American, b. 1948)
America
gelatin silver print
Image: 22.9 x 20.8 cm (9 x 8 3/16 in.); Framed: 48.1 x 44.5 cm (18 15/16 x 17 1/2 in.)
The Jane B. Tripp Charitable Lead Annuity Trust 2020.72
© Nancy Burson
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The current global ratio of men to women in 2020 is estimated at 1.02 males for each female.

Description

Working with two MIT engineers, Nancy Burson developed the technique of computer morphing faces in the late 1980s. Instead of photographing individuals and then morphing their images, Burson chose to use examples from books and other pre-existing sources, exploring not individuality but instead the power and danger of stereotypes. Androgyny questions how we identify a face as male or female. The component faces in the work include a variety of ages but are all Caucasian.
  • 1999
    Studio of the Artist
    2000
    (Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA)
    2000-2020
    John J. McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH
    March 2, 2020
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Burson, Nancy, Richard Carling, and David Kramlich. Composites: Computer-Generated Portraits. New York: Beech Tree Books, 1986.
    Burson, Nancy, Michael L. Sand, Lynn Gumpert, Terrie Sultan, and Christopher C. French. Seeing and Believing: The Art of Nancy Burson. Santa Fe, N.M.: Twin Palms, 2002.
  • {{cite web|title=Androgyny (6 Men + 6 Women)|url=false|author=Nancy Burson|year=1982, printed 1999|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.72