Tron (Amputee)
Artist
Martha Rosler
(American, born 1943)
Dateabout 1967–1972
Mediumphotomontage
Dimensionssight: 61 × 50.8 cm (24 × 20 in.)
frame: 63.3 × 53 cm (24 15/16 × 20 7/8 in.)
frame: 63.3 × 53 cm (24 15/16 × 20 7/8 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineStoddard Acquisition Fund
Terms
Object number2008.14
Label TextRosler’s series House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home blended pages from the popular home décor magazine House Beautiful with scenes of the Vietnam War taken from news magazines such as Life. Throughout the series she inserted the war into polished interiors that represented the mid-twentieth-century, suburban “American dream.” The series presents an unapologetic critique of U.S. capitalism by juxtaposing images of trendy furnishings with the trauma affecting civilians impacted by the war in Vietnam.
For Tron (Amputee), Rosler removed the figure of twelve-year-old Vietnamese national Nguyen Thi Tròn from a Life cover photograph taken by photojournalist Larry Burrows. As art historian Diana Tuite observed, “In this composite, Tròn is frozen in the foreground, as though poised to answer the front door, thereby making her contemplative expression become significantly more ambiguous.” The young girl’s arm extends beyond the edge of the image as if beseechingly reaching into the comfort of the American home.ProvenanceThe artist; Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NYOn View
Not on view
