Twinka

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Twinka

Artist Judy Dater (American, born 1941)

Date1970

Dimensions12 7/8 x 10 in. (32.6 x 25.4 cm)

MediumGelatin silver print

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LineGift of the Toledo Modern Art Group

Object number

1978.29

Not on View

Label TextJudy Dater was greatly inspired by the portrait photography of Imogen Cunningham, whom she admired for her provocative and non-idealized approach towards the human form (see Cunningham’s Coffee Gallery, San Francisco elsewhere in this gallery). Following in her footsteps, Dater’s photographs challenge traditional conceptions of the human nude and break from a fixed notion of idealized female beauty. The woman in this photograph is Twinka Thiebaud, the daughter of the California-based artist Wayne Thiebaud, who Dater often turned to as a model. As a means of revealing her models' hidden qualities, Dater only provides general instructions for how to pose. For this photograph, she suggested that Twinka sit in a cave-like opening at the base of a redwood tree. Twinka’s intense gaze that confronts the viewer directly and her hand’s firm grasp of the tree was uninfluenced by the photographer.Exhibition HistoryTMA Recent Acquisitions, Prints, Photographs and Drawings : April 1979 Mar. - Apr.,1979