Object number2022.27
Constellations (Zora Neale Hurston after Carl Van Vechten)
Date2022
Artist
Andrea Geyer
(German, born 1971)
CultureGerman, American
MediumHand-cut archival inkjet print on rag paper, mounted to board; unique
Edition1 from an edition of 1 plus 1 artist's proof
DimensionsIncoming Dimensions: 34 3/4 x 23 1/2 in. (88.3 x 59.7 cm)
Image: 34 1/2 x 23 1/4 in. (87.6 x 59.1 cm)
Framed: 35 1/2 x 24 1/4 in. (90.2 x 61.6 cm)
Image: 34 1/2 x 23 1/4 in. (87.6 x 59.1 cm)
Framed: 35 1/2 x 24 1/4 in. (90.2 x 61.6 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, Advisory Council for Photography
On View
Not on viewPeriod21st c
Classification(s)
SignedOn the reverse of the frame, on a printed label, signed lower right in ink: A Geyer
InscribedOn the reverse of the frame, on a printed artist's label lower left: Andrea Geyer / Constellations / (Zora Neale Hurston after Carl Van Vechten) / 2022; on a printed gallery label lower right: HALES / Andrea Geyer / Constellations (Zora Neale Hurston after Carl Van / Vechten), 2022 / [medium and dimension information] / Edition of 1 plus 1 artist's proof (#1/1) / A_GEY0120
ProvenancePurchased from Hales GalleryVassar Exhibitions
Exhibition HistoryWhat Now? (Or Not Yet), Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, January 21 - September 10, 2023Label TextAndrea Geyer’s Constellations series centers the women who shaped modernism yet remain underrecognized and marginalized within art history. Through altered portraits of cultural figures, Geyer questions how photographic records can redress historical visibility. Here, Geyer cuts Carl Van Vechten’s 1935 portrait of author Zora Neale Hurston into angular segments, which are then redistributed without following anatomical logic. Each gap exposes the paper beneath, contrasting with Van Vechten’s original photograph, while also nodding to Structural Constellations, a series of geometric abstractions made by Josef Albers starting in the 1950s. The reconstructed portrait underscores how Hurston’s legacy has been fragmented and overlooked, yet her figure emerges through the breaks.
DescriptionImage of a young woman with short hair and a necklace with linear zig-zag wallpaper in the background and abstracted shapes with other areas of the image displaced at the centerTerms
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge.
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Enoc Perez
2011
Culture: Puerto Rican
