Not on display

Widow (Red)

Photograph
01/1997 (made), 03/1997 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Inez Van Lamsweerde is one of the most important contemporary photographers who traverses both art and commercial photography. Her unsettling fashion photographs have been influential in defining British magazines such as The Face and i-D. The photographer's work has received international acclaim for the blending of commercial photographic style with startling narratives, often psychological and sexual in nature.

The use of digital manipulation in Widow (Red) is more subtle than in the photographer's previous work. Visible only at the bottom, the male appears to float across the image.

Object details

Category
Object type
TitleWidow (Red) (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
C-type colour print
Brief description
Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, 'Widow (Red)', 1997
Physical description
Photograph of a girl holding a man in her arms. Her eyes are half closed and she is wearing a red dress. Part of a series of four images.
Dimensions
  • Print height: 150cm
  • Print width: 150cm
Copy number
4 of 6
Gallery label
Inez van Lamsweerde (Dutch, born 1963)
Widow (red). 1997
C-type colour print
Bought 1998
E.480-1998

"In 'The Widow' series, every possible fundamental concept seems to be flawed. ... the widow herself is just a child, hardly old enough to be widowed. Another image shows an elderly man being held by 'the widow' as if he were an infant and it becomes clear that our most immediate associations are not only being thrown into question, but practically annulled."

Cecelia Anderson, 1997
(2008-2009)
Inez Van Lamsweerde is one of the most prominent contemporary photographers who traverses both art and commercial practice. Her often unsettling fashion photographs have been influential in defining British magazines such as The Face and i-D. Van Lamsweerde's images blend the high finish and look of commercial photographic style with startling or disturbing narratives, created via digital manipulation, that are often psychological or sexual in nature.
Object history
'Widow'(Red) is one image from a series of four.

Historical significance: Van Lamsweerde is one of the most important contemporary photographers who traverses both art and commercial photography.
Subjects depicted
Summary
Inez Van Lamsweerde is one of the most important contemporary photographers who traverses both art and commercial photography. Her unsettling fashion photographs have been influential in defining British magazines such as The Face and i-D. The photographer's work has received international acclaim for the blending of commercial photographic style with startling narratives, often psychological and sexual in nature.

The use of digital manipulation in Widow (Red) is more subtle than in the photographer's previous work. Visible only at the bottom, the male appears to float across the image.
Bibliographic reference
Catalogue: Silver and Syrup: Selections from the History of Photography exhibition
Collection
Accession number
E.480-1998

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Record createdSeptember 13, 2003
Record URL
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