Muhammad (Chicago)

Name/Title

Muhammad (Chicago)

Entry/Object ID

2011.13

Description

A portrait of a young boy on a bike.

Acquisition

Notes

Collection of DePaul Art Museum, Art Acquisition Endowment

Made/Created

Artist

Bey, Dawoud

Date made

2001

Ethnography

Notes

N.A., U.S. North America United States Chicago

Lexicon

Getty AAT

Concept

photodocumentation, documentation (activity), information handling functions, functions (activities)

Hierarchy Name

Functions (hierarchy name)

Facet

Activities Facet

Dimensions

Dimension Description

in frame

Width

41 in

Depth

2 in

Length

50 in

Dimension Description

overall; image

Width

32 in

Length

40 in

Exhibitions

Dawoud Bey: Portraits in Context
Re:Chicago

Interpretative Labels

Label

In 2001 Dawoud Bey had some time to himself. It was summer, and the classes he taught at Columbia College were over. He stepped out of his apartment building and into the park directly across the street. Not since his earliest days as a photographer working in black and white had he roamed around making street portraits. Now he worked in color but continued to use a four-by-five-inch view camera, which required a deliberate dedication to equipment and posing his subjects. His own bold work of multiple, large scale color Polaroid portraits had given way to a new, but more traditional approach of single-framed studio portraits. And likely there were a thousand other unaccountable things calling for his attention. Mostly there was fresh air, the squawk of Hyde Park’s wild green parrots, picnickers, elderly bench sitters, tennis players, and, of course, a healthy spectrum of children. Bey set up his tripod and camera in the park, often just letting his subjects come to him. One after another, sitters found the photographer or vice versa, and one after another, sensitive portraits resulted. One of the artist’s chance encounters was with Muhammad, whose family had come to Chicago’s Southside from Africa. Muhammad was a bright boy of about ten who spoke Arabic, French, English, and probably four or five African languages. He posed willingly with his bicycle, revealing the trusting, pensive face that Bey is able to coax masterfully from carefree, wondering grade-schoolers and moody, self-obsessed high-school students. —David Travis, from DPAM's 2011 catalogue "Re: Chicago"