Harvard Art Museums > P2000.159: Water and Oil Drawing Photographs Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Water and Oil Drawing (Arturo Herrera) , P2000.159,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 19, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/174651. This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number P2000.159 People Arturo Herrera, Venezuelan (Caracas, Venezuela born 1959) Title Water and Oil Drawing Classification Photographs Work Type photograph Date 1996 Places Creation Place: North America, United States, Illinois, Chicago Culture Venezuelan Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/174651 Physical Descriptions Technique Gelatin silver print Dimensions image: 5.72 x 8.89 cm (2 1/4 x 3 1/2 in.) sheet: 25.4 x 20.32 cm (10 x 8 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History The artist; Ivan Moskowitz and Rena Conti; "Gift of Herbert Moskowitz," to HUAM in 2000. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of the Moskowitz Family, Encino, California Copyright © Arturo Herrera Accession Year 2000 Object Number P2000.159 Division Modern and Contemporary Art Contact am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Description Water and Oil Drawings, 1996, a series of four silver gelatin prints, Herrera takes two diametrically opposed substances and documents their inter/re-action. His experiments yield varying results; in two of the drawings the oil beads into minute, round bubble-like forms, the density of the oil congealing into a strong, circular outline against the water base, and in the other two prints, a fluid intermingling of water and oil washes across the surface, faintly forming organic impressions and shapes that span across the picture plane. These surface reactions yield quietly lyrical patterning. Herrera's careful development of the silver (gray-black) tonal range brings these forms to life. These drawings are about shapes, form, and materials (water and oil), not color or perspective. Yet upon detailed examination, the viewer sees that the oil beads occur in duplicate: each circle is connected to another, with the link extending into the matrix of the other, forming intersecting, horizontally oriented pairs. This effect suggests depth, however, one cannot be sure that the perceived depth truly exists. In one print, in which the beads conglomerate into fours, the questions arises, " is the drawing 3-dimensional" Again, Herrera's deceptively simple renderings provoke the viewer, presenting a familiar reaction (the one that commonly happens when one adds oil while boiling water for pasta or sees when one's car has leaked oil in the parking space on a rainy day) in a new way. Fragmented, individual parts cohere together in an organic whole; and the camera, lending a scientific-like lens to these laboratory slide looking drawings. As documentary photographs, the tension between appearance and reality is all the more palpable. While Herrera brings much to the forefront with both photographic series, it is his use of systems of subconscious that work within the viewer, leading to a sense of connection to and estrangement from the subjects and the questions they invoke. Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
