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The Selling of 5 Americans...
Vito Acconci
Contemporary Art
TVito Acconci’s artworks of the 1960s and 1970s explore the often unspoken physical, gendered, sexual, and emotional relationships between artist and viewer. For example, in 1969’s Following Piece, he followed randomly selected passersby in New York City, in order to unsettle traditional boundaries of propriety and power.
The prints on view question two of the most prevalent types of power in the United States: the insistence on, and celebration of, gun ownership, as seen in Bite the Bullet: Slow Guns for Quick Sale (To Be Etched on Your American Mind), and the definitions of citizenship, suggested in The Selling of 5 Americans and a Place for One World Citizen. Acconci’s sly critiques place in stark relief the realities of different forms of violence and power at the core of American identity.
The prints on view question two of the most prevalent types of power in the United States: the insistence on, and celebration of, gun ownership, as seen in Bite the Bullet: Slow Guns for Quick Sale (To Be Etched on Your American Mind), and the definitions of citizenship, suggested in The Selling of 5 Americans and a Place for One World Citizen. Acconci’s sly critiques place in stark relief the realities of different forms of violence and power at the core of American identity.
MEDIUM
Photo-etching and aquatint on paper
DATES
1977
DIMENSIONS
29 3/4 x 41 3/4in. (75.6 x 106cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed lower right
INSCRIPTIONS
Dated and titled in graphite, lower margin
Blind Stamp in lower right: "Crown Point Press/ Doris Simmelink"
Printed by Doris Simmelink; Published by Crown Point Press
COLLECTIONS
Contemporary Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
1991.215.1
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Nancy Genn
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Vito Acconci (American, 1940–2017). The Selling of 5 Americans..., 1977. Photo-etching and aquatint on paper, 29 3/4 x 41 3/4in. (75.6 x 106cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Nancy Genn, 1991.215.1. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1991.215.1_bw.jpg)
EDITION
Edition: 21/35
IMAGE
overall, 1991.215.1_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
© artist or artist's estate
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