Skip to main content
Washington University in St. Louis
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

Create an account to add artworks to your personal collections.

Enter your email address below to recieve an email to reset your password.

An email has been sent to your inbox to reset your password.

image alt

Adam Pendleton

System of Display, I (IMPLICIT / Debles, or rhythm figure, Northern Ivory Coast, Korhogo district, Lataha village, Senufo tribe)

2018–19

image alt
1 / 1

These four works from Adam Pendleton’s System of Display—an ongoing series of wall-mounted shadowboxes that frame found images—exemplify the artist’s open-ended method of accumulating and arranging materials from his vast personal library. The images often refer to twentieth-century documents of colonialism and decolonization as well as the entanglements of European and African modernisms. In this case the two images of African sculpture come from the exhibition catalog The Art of Black Africa (1972), while the two striped images come from a 1962 book on the art of the postwar Israeli kinetic artist Yaacov Agam. Pendleton photocopied, enlarged, and then silkscreened each image on a mirrored surface, which is encased by a glass pane. He also printed onto the glass a single letter derived from a longer word that is indicated in the artworks’ titles. The series exists as an experimental archive that challenges conventional museological practices of interpretation, collection, and display, provoking us to question what we think we know. As Pendleton explains, “I want to create a situation where we’re inclined to rethink notions of the past and the future, as well as our ability to understand them enough to make reductive statements.” The artist’s use of a mirrored surface brings the viewer into the artwork, animating the image’s negative space with the vitality of the present moment while
also serving as a reminder that meaning is contingent upon context. [Permanent Collection label, 2021]

  • Artist Adam Pendleton (American, b. 1984)
  • Title System of Display, I (IMPLICIT / Debles, or rhythm figure, Northern Ivory Coast, Korhogo district, Lataha village, Senufo tribe)
  • Date 2018–19
  • Medium Screen prints on acrylic and mirror
  • Dimensions framed | 9 13/16 x 9 13/16 x 3 1/8 in.
  • Credit line University purchase, Bixby Fund, 2019
  • Object number WU 2019.0006.0003

Received at MLKAM 9/10/2019; presented to ACC 11/21/2019
Pace Gallery, New York

At center, printed on acrylic:
I

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.

Related Content

go to Comparative Arts page
3766.tif
Theme

Comparative Arts

go to Poetry and Writing page
4528.tif
Theme

Poetry and Writing

go to Across Past, Present, and Future: Art by Black Artists page
2019_0006_0002
Guides

Across Past, Present, and Future: Art by Black Artists

Grade: High, University

Image Reproduction Request Form

To request image materials and/or permission to reproduce a work of art from the Museum's collection, please complete and submit the form below. The information you provide here will enable us to process your request and assess the appropriate images, permissions, and any applicable fees. 

Typically, image requests that do not require new photography can be completed within three weeks. Whenever possible, rush orders may be accommodated, although additional fees may apply.

If you have questions, please contact Kristin Good, associate registrar, at kristin.good@wustl.edu.

Checking this box constitutes a legal signature. By checking this box, the applicant agrees to abide by all terms and conditions under which permission is granted to reproduce works of art in the collection of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, and that permission is contingent upon payment of any applicable fees.

* Required fields

test View details