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
Collection of DePaul Art Museum, 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.
