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Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

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Katharina Sieverding

Maton

1969/1996

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Since the late 1960s the German experimental artist Katharina Sieverding has taken images of her own face as a point of departure for her work. Maton comprises two parts: the right side of the large-scale diptych shows a flattened and larger-than-life photograph of the artist’s face that is so heavily made-up it appears androgynous, while the left side consists of a mirror. The initial photograph was taken in a photo booth (photomaton in French, from which the title of the work derives). Sieverding then reshot the image using a camera that eliminated the gray tones before photographing it yet again with color film. Thus mediated, Sieverding’s self-portraits do not exist as single images but in the form of a series, interrogating the photographic medium’s ability to document,
reproduce, and represent. The presence of the mirror implicates the viewer as well, emphasizing their role in the process of image production and reception. Sieverding created this work while studying at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where the conceptual artist Joseph Beuys fostered an experimental climate with an emphasis on the political and social dimension of art that was instrumental to her early development as an artist and her critical approach to photography. [Permament Collection Label, 2021]

  • Artist Katharina Sieverding (German, b. Prague, 1944)
  • Title Maton
  • Date 1969/1996
  • Medium Color photograph and mirror
  • Edition description 1/5
  • Dimensions unframed | 74 3/4 x 49 1/4 in. (each)
    framed | 75 x 49 1/2 x 3/4 in. (each)
  • Credit line University purchase, Art Acquisition Fund, 2002
  • Object number WU 2002.0006 a-b

Wanting Women: Expressions of Desire and Difference in Images of Women from the 16th Century to Today
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/31/2014 - 04/14/2014

Atrium Winter 2008–Summer 2009
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 10/28/2008

Contemporary German Art: Recent Acquisitions
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/17/2003 - 04/20/2003

Collecting Patterns
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/05/2003 - 12/07/2003

Katharina Sieverding, 1967–1997
Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 05/16/1998 - 07/12/1998

10/7/2002
Michael Neff Gallery, Frankfurt

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

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