Harvard Art Museums > M26130: Duke Prints Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Duke (Ellen Gallagher) , M26130,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 18, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/57017. This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number M26130 People Ellen Gallagher, American (Providence, Rhode Island 1965 -) Title Duke Classification Prints Work Type print Date 2004 Culture American Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/57017 Physical Descriptions Medium Photogravure with laser cutting, collage, and hair pomade Technique Photogravure Dimensions sheet: 37.3 x 25.5 cm (14 11/16 x 10 1/16 in.) Inscriptions and Marks Signed: Ellen Gallagher inscription: yes, verso, graphite, hand written, signed: signature, date, edition numbering, press identification: Ellen Gallegher 2004 10/20 / TWO PALMS PRESS, NYC Provenance Recorded Ownership History [Two Palms Press, Inc., New York, New York], sold; to Harvard University Art Museums, May 25, 2004. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Margaret Fisher Fund Copyright © Ellen Gallagher Accession Year 2004 Object Number M26130 Division Modern and Contemporary Art Contact am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Commentary A small print such as this is a characteristic Gallagher, since even in her very large paintings she works on a paper substrate, often adhering to it die-cut elements and plastic three-dimensional modeling materials, the equivalent of the layered, laser-cut silhouettes and "Duke" hair pommade that are the essence of this print. Gallagher employs much the same imagery in her paintings as well, confessing that for the painting "Falls and Flips," for example, she isolated advertisements of synthetic-fiber African-American wigs, and that more generally, "I scan pages from advertisements about control: acne, unruly hair, corns, bunions, and asthma" ("Ellen Gallagher Talks about 'Pomp-Bang,' 2003," 'Artforum, April 2004, p. 128). Obviously, the hair pommade (its commercial brand-name: "Duke") that both highlights and obscures the afros of the 110 men in "Duke" is the controlling element here, or at least one of them. The cubist grid and the blank space below each bust, redolent of the mug shot, are other suggestions of control. Whether one is amused, frightened, or seduced (as one could be by the scent of the pommade released by opening the cover of the print's container) by this line-up of out-of-date style, it is a provocative print, one that embodies the artist's continuing preoccupation in all her works with the "tension between the drawn and the printed" (meaning, of course, printed sources as well as created printed consequences) (Robert Storr in "Ellen Gallagher," exhibition catalogue, Boston: ICA, 2003). The September/October issue of "Art on Paper" (v. 8, no. 1) featured an article ("Hand Work," pp. 34-35) that describes Gallagher's labor-intensive print-making process, which requires as much work on the part of Two Palms Press and their computerized facilities to realize an edition. Exhibition History Critical Printing, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/31/2019 - 01/05/2020 Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
