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Candida and Her Mother, Celia, II

Color photograph, divided into six panels, of two seated women looking at camera.
© Dawoud Bey.

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  • Color photograph, divided into six panels, of two seated women looking at camera.

Date:

1994

Artist:

Dawoud Bey
American, born 1953

About this artwork

In the dispiriting years just after World War I, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats wrote the famous line: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” We have since gotten used to living with pieces—pieces of time, heritage, even morality. Although Dawoud Bey sometimes seeks a solitary moment or a single point of view in his photographs, he knows that the essence of what lives before the camera often eludes such an approach. Thus, in Candida and Her Mother, Celia, II, he emphasized the complexities of mother-daughter relationships. The grid format of his composition includes frames in which the mother’s and daughter’s faces and hands are captured together, as well as separate frames in which they gaze back at the artist. In the wholesome beauty of this loving family bond, Bey constructed a cohesive sanctuary apart from the horrors and ambiguities of our time.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Dawoud Bey

Title

Candida and Her Mother, Celia, II

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1994

Medium

Internal dye diffusion transfer prints (6)

Inscriptions

Unmarked recto of each panel; inscribed verso of each panel, on backing board, upper center, in black ink: "Candida and Her Mother Celia II"

Dimensions

Each image, approx: 61.4 × 53.2 cm (24 3/16 × 21 in.); each paper, approx: 76.8 × 65.4 cm (30 1/4 × 25 3/4 in.); 79.7 × 59 × 5.7 cm (31 7/16 × 23 1/4 × 2 1/4 in.); each frame: 79.7 × 59.1 × 5.8 cm (31 3/8 × 23 1/4 × 2 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gladys N. Anderson Endowment

Reference Number

2002.554a-f

Copyright

© Dawoud Bey.

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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