2002.24 Nevada 1, Nevada | DMA Staging Content Management System

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

In 1999, Thomas Struth traveled throughout the storied American West, seeking out its particular landscape. In Nevada, Struth found a subject that challenged him to capture without sentimentality or exaggeration the land that has been the site of so much American mythology. To make this photograph Struth placed his camera on the shaded side of a mesa overlooking the vast Nevada desert. Immediately evident is the shadowed contour of the rock outcrop and the spiky vegetation that lead down diagonally from the picture's upper right corner. The shadow is so dark because the sun bearing down on the desert is so intensely bright, an impression confirmed by the clear blue sky fully dominating the upper half of the composition. On the left lower corner, we see a line meandering to the center horizon of further mesas in the distance. The line turns out to be a road which appears to be no more than a trail. Nevada 1 shows Struth drawing out a composition from a landscape that is flat and barren and mostly devoid of human presence; and that relies on the unmitigated sun for its visual clarity.

Adapted from

Charles Wylie, DMA unpublished material, 2001.

NOTES

DMA unpublished material = Charles Wylie, Acquisition Proposal. In Collections Records object file (2002.24).

Catalogue essays

A History of Now: The Art of Thomas Struth

Postwar German Art at the Dallas Museum of Art

Contemporary Art at the Dallas Museum of Art

Artist/designers

Struth, Thomas (German, b. 1954)

Cultures

Geography

Process/materials

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms

RELATED OBJECTS

PROVENANCE

Until 2002: Thomas Struth (b. 1954)

2002: Dallas Museum of Art, purchased through Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

Notes:

The main source for this provenance is the copy of the invoice dated January 23, 2002, in the Collections Records object file (2002.24).

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VIDEO ASSETS

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ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

Apply to objects where number equals 2002.24

General Description

In 1999, Thomas Struth traveled throughout the storied American West, seeking out its particular landscape. In Nevada, Struth found a subject that challenged him to capture without sentimentality or exaggeration the land that has been the site of so much American mythology. To make this photograph Struth placed his camera on the shaded side of a mesa overlooking the vast Nevada desert. Immediately evident is the shadowed contour of the rock outcrop and the spiky vegetation that lead down diagonally from the picture's upper right corner. The shadow is so dark because the sun bearing down on the desert is so intensely bright, an impression confirmed by the clear blue sky fully dominating the upper half of the composition. On the left lower corner, we see a line meandering to the center horizon of further mesas in the distance. The line turns out to be a road which appears to be no more than a trail. Nevada 1 shows Struth drawing out a composition from a landscape that is flat and barren and mostly devoid of human presence; and that relies on the unmitigated sun for its visual clarity.