Untitled Head #11
Artist
Salomón Huerta
(Mexican, active in the United States, born 1965)
Date2002
Mediumoil on canvas on panel
Dimensionspanel: 30.5 x 29.8 x 2.5 cm (12 x 11 3/4 x 1 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineStoddard Acquisition Fund
Object number2002.531
Label TextStripped of portraiture’s traditional focus on the face, Salomón Huerta’s anonymous head turns away from us and, in effect, refuses to be seen, thus denying us access to important clues as to the subject’s identity. The monochrome background offers no additional contextual information. Huerta asks how and with what kinds of visual information do we presume to know someone? Despite being close-up, precisely rendered, and objectively recorded, Huerta’s mute “anti-portrait” consciously challenges our tendency to read someone based upon our own experiences, values, and biases. About his paintings of heads Huerta has said, “I wanted to find a way to make them non-confrontational—to tone everything down so it was like a mirror to the viewer.”
ProvenancePatricia Favre Gallery, Santa Monica, CAOn View
Not on view
