2016.16.5, Annette Kelm, Bouquet, 2012

Photographs by artist Annette Kelm appear to follow conventional forms of the photographic tradition, featuring still lifes [2016.16.1], portraits [2016.16.2], and object photographs [2016.16.3], as well as architectural and landscape photographs in medium-sized formats, which tend to be based on conventional studio and landscape practices. However, she undermines the promise of objectivity by adding props that seem surreal or subjective. This work is no exception; its heavily saturated, crisp colors project a painterly, otherworldly quality. The pristine table and sharp horizon line anchors the bouquet in space and radically flattens the composition, but gives no context or indication of place. Scale becomes difficult to recognize, and the space one is accustomed to finding in the photograph transforms. While a vase of flowers is a traditional subject matter, the flowers themselves are hardly exceptional, save for the burst of purple from a single flower. 

DMA unpublished material.

Until 2016: Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

From 2016: Dallas Museum of Art, purchased from above [1]

[1] previously entered provenance, TMS 2016.16.5

Apply to objects where number equals 2016.16.5