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Lucerna

A work made of chromogenic print.

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  • A work made of chromogenic print.

Date:

1971

Artist:

Luigi Ghirri
Italian, 1943–1992

About this artwork

Following the worldwide upheavals of 1968, many artists began to doubt the efficacy of formal and aesthetic gestures unconnected to cultural resistance. Acutely aware of photography’s conventional use as propaganda to reinforce the standing order, Luigi Ghirri produced work that made commercial or mass-produced imagery appear in an ironic or diminished light. In Ghirri’s view, the Italian landscape appeared as a set of stock images, Technicolor hues, and cinematic montages. To make Lucerna, a very early work, he photographed the superimposition of two ready-made images in a plate glass window: the reflection of a car seen behind a photographic reproduction of a man in a tuxedo. Lucerna exemplifies Ghirri’s belief that “the autonomy of the photographic idiom” was “not being mere duplication and not being a simple chronometer of the eye to freeze the physical world.”

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Luigi Ghirri

Title

Lucerna

Place

Italy (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 1971

Medium

Chromogenic print

Dimensions

Image/paper: 12.6 × 17.7 cm (5 × 7 in.)

Credit Line

David Travis Fund

Reference Number

2010.316

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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