Three Frame Studies, Vito Acconci
Vito Acconci
Three Frame Studies
DE
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Vito Acconci

Three Frame Studies, 1969 – 1970


Blatt
76.2 x 50.8 cm
Physical Description
Collage, gelatin silver print, chalk on resin-coated paper and cardboard
Inventory Number
DZF 186b
Acquisition
Collection DZ BANK at the Städel Museum
Status
Not on display

Texts

About the Work

Vito Acconci saw the act of drawing breath as a twofold blessing. The inhaling and exhaling of air, which Goethe praised as a sign of life, helped this performance artist from the Bronx to definitions of a body-related architecture experienced through the breathing technique. Acconci, too, had written poetry, before he began to treat architecture as a body. Complemented by the sketched radius of the physical field of movement, his 'Three Frame Studies' from 1969/70 - with the rapid encircling of the fixed camera ('Circle'), the abrupt landing in an empty landscape ('Jumps'), and two wrestling bodies attempting to force each other out of the frame ('Push') all serving by way of measurement - depict the act of appropriation of the delineated space through body art. The artist also undertakes projects to vitalise the functional space. The steel shell he designed for Graz on the occasion of its being named the 2003 European Capital of Culture is a 'floating island' fifty metres long and twenty metres wide in the River Mur. The amphitheatre at its centre accommodates 350 visitors, and beneath it, the river pulsates as the artery of the Baroque city.

Audio

  • Basic information
    01:14
  • Focus art history
    01:48

Work Data

Basic Information

Title
Three Frame Studies (Original Title)
Photographer
Set
Three Frame Studies
Part Number / Total
2 / 4
Edition
Unikat
Period Produced
Object Type
Physical Description
Collage, gelatin silver print, chalk on resin-coated paper and cardboard
Material
Technique
Label at the Time of Manufacture
Bezeichnet unten: PUSH (3 MINUTES, MAY 1970) / - WE BEGIN BOTH IN THE CENTER OF THE FRAME - EACH OF US / TRIES TO PUSH THE OTHER OUT - THE FRAME FUNCTIONS / AS A FIELD OF POSSESSION, A TEST OF STRENGHTH AND / CONTROL, A POTENTIALLY PRIVATE REGION

Property and Acquisition

Institution
Departement
Collection
Creditline
Sammlung der DZ BANK im Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Picture Copyright
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023
Acquisition
Collection DZ BANK at the Städel Museum

Work Content

Motifs and References

Genre
Main Motif
Persons Shown
Associated Persons and Institutions

Iconclass

Primary
  • 5 Abstract Ideas and Concepts
  • 61B2(ACCONCI, Vito) historical person (ACCONCI, Vito)
  • 48B3 portrait, self-portrait of artist
  • 51I1 Limited, Defined Space
  • 31A27 movements of the human body
Secondary

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Last update

11.09.2023