Untitled #2
Item
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Title
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Untitled #2
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Rights
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Sunil Gupta, National Gallery of Art, Fair Use.
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Creator
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Sunil Gupta (1953-)
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Date
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1988, printed 2020
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Description
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Gupta is an Indian-British/Canadian photographer who focuses on queer communities across the globe, as well as stories of migration among gay men. This piece, two fractions of photos accompanied by a segment of poetry, is one of several in his series "'Pretended' Family Relationships." Gupta details this series as a response to the UK's Clause 28, which, "forbid the representation of homosexual relationships as 'pretended family relationships.'" Each portrait was of an unnamed gay couple, intersected by photos from demonstrations against the Clause and segments of poetry by Gupta's then-partner, Stephen Dodd. In this piece, Untitled #2, one man leans against a grafitti-ed wall and looks on toward a man facing away from him. The poem to the right of this image reads, "At night, in / this dark and neon- / flaring street, cars / splash puddles / of fragrant / diesel, caught / in a headlamp flow, / and the memory / of a moment's // pause (shaped / like a curving / leg) is fanned by / a hungry upward / turning, half- / transparent blaze / of flaming red." To the right of this poem, taking up about a sixth of the entire piece, is a black and white image of a Black police officer facing his left, looking toward the poem and image of the two men.
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Format
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Inkjet print. Image: 61 × 91.4 cm (24 × 36 in.) Sheet: 65.41 × 111.76 cm (25 3/4 × 44 in.)
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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National Gallery of Art. 2022.23.2
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Contributor
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Max Schrader
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Subject
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gay; POC; India; Canada; poetry; poem; graffiti; color; public
Untitled #2