Bite the Bullet; Slow Guns for Quick Sale...

Vito Acconci

1 of 2

Object Label

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.

Caption

Vito Acconci American, 1940–2017. Bite the Bullet; Slow Guns for Quick Sale..., 1977. Photo-etching on paper, 29 3/4 x 41 3/4in. (75.6 x 106cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Nancy Genn, 1991.215.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1991.215.2_PS9.jpg)

Gallery

Not on view

Title

Bite the Bullet; Slow Guns for Quick Sale...

Date

1977

Medium

Photo-etching on paper

Classification

Print

Dimensions

29 3/4 x 41 3/4in. (75.6 x 106cm)

Signatures

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

Credit Line

Gift of Nancy Genn

Accession Number

1991.215.2

Rights

© artist or artist's estate

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