Rose

Expand

IIIFView PDF

Rose

Artist Doug Starn (American, born 1961)

Artist Mike Starn (American, born 1961)

Date1985

Dimensions101 1/2 x 82 1/2 in. (2.6 x 209.6 cm)

Mediumtoned gelatin-silver print with tape, on board with wood frame

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LineGift of Temperance P. Reed in memory of Samuel R. Reed, and Elizabeth C. Mau Bequest Fund, by exchange

Object number

2005.278

Not on View

Label TextIdentical twins Mike and Doug Starn have never been interested in producing pristine black and white photographs. Instead, they deliberately subvert expectations of “fine photography” by crumpling, ripping, folding, toning, and scoring the photographic paper. They also scratch negatives, and sometimes splash chemicals on the prints to create blotches that resemble the effects of paint. See if you can identify how many of these techniques they have used in Rose. One of their most distinctive practices is patching fragments of printed photographs and collage elements together with cellophane tape. The tape will yellow over time and stain the prints, so the work will continue to change as it ages—which is exactly what the Starns want. Like many of the Starns’ subjects, a rose emphasizes the fleetingness of time, beauty, and life. Their manipulations of the negative and the prints deliberately emphasize that same transience in art.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 353, repr. (col.).