Untitled
1968
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 31.8 x 21.3 cm (12 1/2 x 8 3/8 in.) sheet: 35.4 x 27.9 cm (13 15/16 x 11 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond W. Merritt
Accession Number
1996.61.5
Art Historical Context
Ralph Gibson's *Untitled* (1968) is a striking gelatin silver print, capturing the intimate scale of personal photography with dimensions of 31.8 x 21.3 cm for the image itself. Created during the late 1960s, a era when photography was transitioning from documentary traditions toward more experimental, surreal expressions, this work exemplifies Gibson's emerging style. Fresh from his time as an assistant to masters like Dorothea Lange and Minor, and influenced by his U.S. Navy reconnaissance photography, Gibson began crafting enigmatic, high-contrast images that fragment reality into dreamlike...
About the Artist
Ralph Gibson
Ralph Gibson, born January 16, 1939, in Los Angeles, California—the son of an assistant director who worked with Alfred Hitchcock—grew up immersed in the glamour of Hollywood film sets, igniting his passion for the visual image. At age 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving as a Photographers Mate and studying photography through 1960. He honed his skills further at the San Francisco Art Instit...