{"data":{"id":"12643","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":12643,"topgoose_id":16073,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":12643,"title":"Self-Portrait (Interlocking Fingers, No. 18)","display_artist_text":"John Coplans","display_date":"2000","accession_number":"2000.98","dimensions":"Image: 31 1/8 × 24 in. (79.1 × 61 cm)\r\nMount (board): 33 1/8 × 26 1/16 in. (84.1 × 66.2 cm)","medium":"Gelatin silver print mounted on board","department":"collection","classification":"Photographs","credit_line":"Purchase, with funds from Ann and Steven Ames","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":"2/6","publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eJohn Coplans, \u003cem\u003eSelf-Portrait (Interlocking Fingers, No. 18)\u003c/em\u003e, 2000. Gelatin silver print mounted on board, image: 31 1/8 × 24 in. (79.1 × 61 cm)\r\nMount (board): 33 1/8 × 26 1/16 in. (84.1 × 66.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from Ann and Steven Ames 2000.98. © John Coplans Trust\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eIn a series of photographs that includes \u003ci\u003eSelf-Portrait (Interlocking Fingers, No. 18)\u003c/i\u003e, John Coplans offers detailed investigations of his hands. Rather than enhance his appearance as one normally expects of portraiture, Coplans here—and in other photographs of his octogenarian body—presents unexpurgated images of advancing age and physical realism. Emphasizing details such as the lines on his hands and the ridges on his fingernails, he contorts his fingers into positions that suggest emotional states, from clenched in distress to clasped in hope or solidarity. These unidealized, close-up views of the body force us to confront themes of human frailty, the transformation of aging, and mortality. Indeed, Coplans never revealed his face in any of his self-portrait images and considered his work to be about “an investigation into myself and the universal.”\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"Two hands with interlaced fingers held together in a tight, protective grip.","alt_text":"A close up photograph of fingers curled up, intertwined","visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T17:29:58.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T12:01:12.446-05:00","images":[{"id":103295,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/12643/2000_98_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"1656","type":"artist"}]}}}}