The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 30, 2026

A horizontal chromogenic print depicts a sculpted bust of a man with dark brown skin, looking down beneath a voluminous red turban. This figure is layered over a blue-tinted engraving of Venice. Etched lines of historic buildings and gondolas ghost across his torso and the background. Patches of white discoloration mark his weathered face. To our right, tall masts and delicate rigging from the print rise, intersecting the sculpture's smooth surface.

Untitled (Venice Biennale)

2003

Fred Wilson

(American, b. 1954)
America
Chromogenic print
Sheet: 76.2 x 103.5 cm (30 x 40 3/4 in.)
Gift in Memory of Toby Devan Lewis 2024.100
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Fred Wilson made this photographic print to complement his installation in the United States pavilion at the Venice Biennale, where he represented the US in 2003.

Description

In this print,Wilson visually integrated African references into a Venetian view, suggesting that the two cultures are intertwined. “The African, the Black, the Negro, the Moor remains an unacknowledged yet constant and lingering presence in Venice,” says Wilson, “inhabiting both its past as seen in Venetian visual culture and its contemporary life by the active presence today of African immigrants, more specifically Senegalese, who now inhabit the margins of Venice.”
  • ?–2022
    Toby Devan Lewis [1934–2022], Cleveland, OH
    2022–24
    Estate of Toby Lewis, Cleveland, OH
    2024
    Adam Joseph Lewis, Ivy Beth Lewis, and Mark C. Lewis, given to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    September 9, 2024–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled (Venice Biennale)|url=false|author=Fred Wilson|year=2003|access-date=30 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2024.100