Self Portrait After John's

Photograph

-

DePaul Art Museum

Name/Title

Self Portrait After John's

Entry/Object ID

2017.01

Description

Woman laying on couch with pink blanket over her, with numorous beer bottles on table next to her.

Context

Schiff's photographs capture a sense of post-adolescence and the in-between space of being a young adult. Using glass bottles, CD cases and found objects mixed with self-portraiture and peaceful landscapes, her works inspire nostalgia for adolescence. In this piece, Schiff composed a still-life of random beer bottles and cans after a party at fellow artist John Opera’s apartment.

Acquisition

Accession

2017.01-02

Source or Donor

Nancy Mollers, Robert Mollers

Acquisition Method

Gift

Credit Line

Gift of Nancy and Robert Mollers

Made/Created

Artist

Schiff, Melanie

Date made

2008

Ethnography

Notes

Basel Switzerland North American, US

Edition

Edition Size

30

Edition Number

8

Lexicon

Getty AAT

Concept

still lifes, visual works (works)

Hierarchy Name

Visual Works (hierarchy name), Visual and Verbal Communication (hierarchy name)

Facet

Objects Facet

LOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

Women, Portraits, Still lifes

Dimensions

Dimension Description

overall

Width

21 in

Depth

1-1/2 in

Length

17 in

Exhibition

DPAM Collects: Happy Little Trees and Other Recent Acquisitions

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Cultural/Historical Context

Label

Melanie Schiff (American, b. 1977) Self-Portrait After John’s, 2008 Archival paper inkjet print Collection of DePaul Art Museum, gift of Nancy and Robert Mollers 2017.1 In Melanie Schiff ’s Self-Portrait After John’s, Schiff composed a still life of various beer bottles, cans, and vinyl records after a party at former Chicago artist John Opera’s apartment. Her gaze gives the defiant look of a teen, while at the same time—under the comfort of a blanket— invoking the knowing, playful glance of a woman who acknowledges the limits that sometimes accompany age.