Skip to main content
0
Info
Due to copyright reasons, no images of this artwork can be shown. We ask for your understanding.
David LaChapelle

Recollections in America, I: 3rd Generation, 2006

Information about the artwork

  • MaterialC-print
  • Dimensions50.8 x 60.9 cm
  • Year of acquisition2007
  • Inventory numberUAB 634 1/13
  • On viewCurrently not exhibited

More about the artwork

David LaChapelle is known for his opulently staged photographs of stars and supermodels. He owed the beginning of his stellar career as a celebrity photographer to Andy Warhol, who first commissioned him for “Interview” magazine in the early 1980s. “Recollections in America” is quite extraordinary for LaChapelle’s œuvre. The pictures are reminiscent of party snapshots; the persons shown seem less to play a part than to forget their parts: an elderly lady throws up in company, an apparently drunk man fills Kahlúa into a baby bottle. The longer the viewer looks at the photographs, the more inconsistencies are noticeable. Who would put a hand grenade onto a sideboard and why does the same man reappear several times? Photo albums from the 1970s and 1980s provide the foundation for this series. LaChapelle has digitally mounted elements such as the hand grenade into the photographs. These collages draw a memorable picture of suburban life in the United States—the dark side of the “American dream.”

Further artworks

Artwork: "An Evening, Chapter 32" from R.H. Quaytman
R.H. Quaytman An Evening, Chapter 32, 2017
Artwork: "Still Life (Hammer and Sickle)" from Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol Still Life (Hammer and Sickle), 1976
Artwork: "Flowers" from Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol Flowers, 1965
Artwork: "Three Flags (swiped again, one)" from Louise Lawler
Louise Lawler Three Flags (swiped again, one), 2022
Artwork: "Beating With a Baseball Bat" from Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman Beating With a Baseball Bat, 1986
Artwork: "Miss Rona’s Hello" from Kara Walker
Kara Walker Miss Rona’s Hello, 2020
Artwork: "Male Heads" from Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol Male Heads, ca. 1953
Artwork: "Monster II" from Arthur Jafa
Arthur Jafa Monster II, 2017
Artwork: "Poster for Nuclear Disarmament" from Keith Haring
Keith Haring Poster for Nuclear Disarmament, 1982