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Collection > Wallace Berman >

Untitled (Faceless Faces)

1963

  • Medium

    Verifax collage

  • Dimensions

    Frame: 31 1/8 x 31 1/8 x 1 1/2 in. (79.1 x 79.1 x 3.8 cm)
    31 1/8 x 31 1/8 x 1 1/2 in. (79.06 x 79.06 x 3.81 cm)
    Image: 29 3/4 x 29 3/4 in. (75.57 x 75.57 cm)

  • Credit

    The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
    Gift of Lannan Foundation

  • Accession number

    97.26

  • Object label

    Interested in chance and spiritual mysticism, Wallace Berman made work rooted in metaphorical explorations. Between 1963 and 1976, he created a series of collages using the Verifax, an early copy machine, to alter found images and reproduce them in mesmerizing duotone grids. Untitled (Faceless Faces) is a grid of photographs of formally dressed couples posing for the camera. Run through the Verifax machine, the resulting reproductions of these photographs were wet, allowing the artist to smudge or erase the faces and identities of the figures. In the resulting collage, the couples have a ghostly presence, their countenances eerily faded and obscured.

  • Rights and Reproductions Information