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Detective

A work made of black-and-white photomechanical reproduction mounted on paper, glass, and tape.

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  • A work made of black-and-white photomechanical reproduction mounted on paper, glass, and tape.

Date:

1972–73

Artist:

Christian Boltanski
French, 1944-2021

About this artwork

Christian Boltanski is a self-taught French artist who first came to critical notice in the late 1960s through his short, avant-garde films that combined real and fictional evidence of his and other people’s lives. In the 1970s, Boltanski began using photography to explore memory and consciousness, often by creating assemblages of documentary photography removed from its original context. The artist wrote of Detective:
I cut the images from a specialized review of crime stories. The photographs—which are similar to those in our own photo albums—are as if from a play, and the people we see in them are the actors, assassins or victims. But it is impossible to differentiate among them, now that the images have been isolated from their context.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Christian Boltanski

Title

Detective

Place

France (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.

1972–1973

Medium

Black-and-white photomechanical reproduction mounted on paper, glass, and tape

Credit Line

Twentieth-Century Purchase Fund

Reference Number

1974.223.21

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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