Like all of the works in Lucas Samaras’s AutoPolaroid series of 1969-71, the figure in this theatrical image is the artist himself. Naked, crouched on all fours, and wearing an inscrutable expression, Samaras reveals to the camera what would otherwise be a private moment. A surround of candy-colored pointillist dots painted on the photographic surface both monumentalizes his body and imparts an element of whimsy to this dramatic moment of self-exposure. For Samaras, the intimate scale and experimental format of the AutoPolaroids enabled a broad range of exploration and role playing; as he remarked, these works afforded him the opportunity to be "my own critic, my own exciter, my own director, my own audience."
Not on view
Date
1971
Classification
Photographs
Medium
Dye diffusion transfer print (Polaroid) with hand-applied ink
Dimensions
Sheet: 3 3/8 × 4 1/4in. (8.6 × 10.8 cm) Image: 2 7/8 × 3 3/4in. (7.3 × 9.5 cm)
Accession number
2003.227
Edition
Unique
Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Postwar Committee
Rights and reproductions
© artist or artist's estate
