Palermo Catacombs #10 (Girl with Flowers)
<p>In 1963, while traveling in Italy, Hujar photographed bodies at the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo. From 1599 to the 1930s, the corpses of the elite of Sicily were preserved—frequently framed, sometimes behind glass—for family members to visit. The bodies remain there to this day. In these works Hujar showed the eerie beauty that lies in this attempt to capture the essence of life in death and reflected on photography’s association with memorialization.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1963
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image: 38.4 × 38.3 cm (15 1/8 × 15 1/8 in.); paper: 50.8 × 40.4 cm (20 × 15 15/16 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Peter Hujar
Artist
Photography
Peter Hujar was an American photographer best known for his black-and-white portraits. Hujar's work received only marginal public recognition during his lifetime, but he has since been recognized as a major American photographer of the 1970s and 1980s.
Full artist profile →More
More by Peter Hujar
Dean Savard Reclining
1984 · Gelatin silver print
Grass, Port Jefferson
1984 · Gelatin silver print
Greer Lankton's Legs
1983 · Gelatin silver print
Canal Street Piers: Fake Men on Stairs
1983 · Gelatin silver print
David Wojnarowicz's Hands with Snake
1981 · Gelatin silver print
Nude Blowing Spit Bubble
1980 · Gelatin silver print
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Peter Hujar
- Year
- 1963
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image: 38.4 × 38.3 cm (15 1/8 × 15 1/8 in.); paper: 50.8 × 40.4 cm (20 × 15 15/16 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1963-116211
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified