Search the Collection - Addison Gallery

☰ Open Filter >>

Laurie Simmons , b. Oct 3, 1949

Untitled (Woman Standing on Head)

1976
5 1/4 x 8 in. (13.34 x 20.32 cm)

Medium and Support: Gelatin silver print

Credit Line: Museum purchase and partial gift of the artist

Accession Number: 2015.34

Commentary

Depicting female dolls in dollhouse interiors performing the stereotypical chores of a 1950s housewife, these images are paradoxically sentimental and critical. In describing this work Simmons has said, "I was simply trying to recreate a feeling, a mood . . . a sense of the fifties that I knew was both beautiful and lethal at the same time."
Created by the artist at the threshold of her career, these poignant and melancholy black and white photographs reflect concerns and themes—artifice and fiction, gender and identity, and memory and nostalgia—that continue to inform her work today. A formative piece within the artist’s oeuvre, it is with this pioneering series of photographs that Simmons became one of the first of a generation of artists to push the boundaries of photography into the realm of conceptual art.

Exhibition List

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Laurie Simmons: In and Around the House Addison Gallery of American Art , 2/6/2016 - 4/17/2016
In and Out of Place Addison Gallery of American Art , 2/16/2019 - 7/31/2019

Portfolio List Click a portfolio name to view all the objects in that portfolio

This object is a member of the following portfolios:

Your current search criteria is: Portfolio is "Collection Highlights".

This site facilitates access to the art and artifact collections by providing digitally searchable records for thousands objects. The information on these pages is not definitive or comprehensive. We are regularly adding artworks and updating research online. We welcome your comments.