Untitled (Primary Title)
Unseen Versailles (Series Title)

Deborah Turbeville, American, 1932 - 2013 (Artist)

published in 1982, printed in 2012
American
Photographs
Works On Paper
Inkjet print
Place Made,United States
Sheet: 26 × 19 1/2 in. (66.04 × 49.53 cm)
Image: 23 13/16 × 17 1/2 in. (60.48 × 44.45 cm)
2012.49
Not on view
In 1981, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, then working for Doubleday, commissioned Turbeville to interpret Versailles with her camera. The result was Unseen Versailles, a photography book published in 1982. Turbeville was not only drawn to the fragmented horse sculptures she found half de-assembled in an attic; she also added another layer of degradation by physically creasing and taping the photograph. She explained, “The idea of disintegration is really the core of all of my work. . . . I destroy the image after I’ve made it, obliterate it so you never have it completely there.”
Signed in black ink in lower right corner of image: "Deborah Turbeville".
Gift of Barbara H. and James L. Peters
©artist or artist’s estate

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