Name/Title
TypeEntry/Object ID
2025.16.01Description
Copper electrotype in various tones of red and orangeContext
John Henderson is a Chicago-based artist whose practice centers on abstract painting through an expanded range of methods and materials. He is best known for his Types and Casts series, in which images are produced through electrotyping and metallic casting. Electrotyping is an electrochemical process that creates an exact metallic replica from a mold through electroforming. By incorporating industrial techniques into his artistic process, Henderson collapses distinctions between functional and decorative, painting and sculpture, and the mass-produced and the unique. While visually presenting as a conventional painting, is actually a copper replica of an original painting--created exactingly through a process known as electrotyping. Henderson subsequently destroys the original paintings in this series of works, leaving the copper version as the only testament to a work that no longer exists.
Henderson understands casting and electrotyping as fundamentally photographic processes, prompting an ongoing investigation into the relationship between photography, casting, and painting. Like a photograph, the final object functions as a representation of the original while also registering a sense of loss through translation. At the same time, by transforming an image into durable materials associated with permanence and longevity, Henderson reinforces and strengthens the original form. The resulting works possess a physical and conceptual weight that the initial source does not.Acquisition
Accession
2025.16Source or Donor
Bruce KaratzAcquisition Method
GiftCredit Line
Gift of Bruce KaratzLexicon
LOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
CopperDimensions
Height
24 inWidth
18 inDepth
1-1/2 inWeight
20 lb