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Variable Piece #70 (In Process): 166A

A work made of typed and signed statement, typed list of characterizations, five chromogenic prints mounted on two panels.
© 2018 Estate of Douglas Huebler / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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  • A work made of typed and signed statement, typed list of characterizations, five chromogenic prints mounted on two panels.

Date:

1975/76

Artist:

Douglas Huebler
American, 1924–1997

About this artwork

Douglas Huebler used diverse systems of documentation to chronicle rule-based but unscripted events and encounters. Variable Piece #70 stands as the most ambitious project of his career—to make a photographic record of “everyone alive.” The utter futility of the premise was liberating, and Huebler would set different terms of play for each foray. For Variable Piece #70 (In Process): 166A, he asked participants to describe themselves by selecting from a set of 80 placards imprinted with different personal characteristics. This work features all five people who posed with the sign reading “One person who may be culturally dislocated.” Far from a fastidious archivist, Huebler pursued Variable Piece #70 until his death, always undermining the project’s potential rigor with allowances for subjectivity and humor.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Douglas Huebler

Title

Variable Piece #70 (In Process): 166A

Place

United States (Object made in)

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.

1975–1976

Medium

Typed and signed statement, typed list of characterizations, five chromogenic prints mounted on two panels

Dimensions

Top panel: 40.6 × 116.8 cm (16 × 46 in.); Bottom panel: 40.6 × 96.5 cm (16 × 38 in.)

Credit Line

Contemporary Art Discretionary Fund

Reference Number

2012.109

Copyright

© 2018 Estate of Douglas Huebler / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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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