From the photographer Tennyson and Fern Schad, New York Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York Gift of Boardroom, Inc., 1992
Exhibited
Robert Heinecken: Object Matter, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 15 March- 7 September 2014
Literature
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Robert Heinecken, pl. 50 The Museum of Modern Art, Robert Heinecken: Object Matter, pl. 68
Catalogue Essay
As a self-described “paraphotographer,” Robert Heinecken created a visual language that transcended the traditional tenets of photography. The current lot was taken ten years after the celebrated photographer established the nation’s first photography department at UCLA. During his tenure as professor and mentor, Heinecken aimed to blur the lines between photography, sculpture, collage and printmaking. In Cliché Vary/Lesbianism, Heinecken presents a four-by-four grid comprised of multiple angles, duplicate details and hand-coloring that collectively disrupt any linear understanding of the final composition. As a hybrid of multiple mediums the work stands at the nexus of postmodernism by constructing an image that challenges our assumptions of inherent truth both in the medium of photography and in our social presentations of sex and gender.
1974 Unique construction of sixteen canvas panels with photographic emulsion and pastel chalk. Each 9 3/4 x 9 7/8 in. (24.8 x 25.1 cm) Overall 40 3/8 x 40 5/8 in. (102.6 x 103.2 cm) 'The Museum of Modern Art' and 'Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago' labels affixed to the reverse of the frame.