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Constellation, from the portfolio In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive and You Were Full of Joy

Artist/Maker (German, b. 1958)
Date1990
MediumChromogenic print
DimensionsOverall: 18 7/8 × 12 5/8 in. (47.9 × 32.1 cm)
Credit LineHorace W. Goldsmith Foundation Photography Fund
Edition12/25
PortfolioIn a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive and You Were Full of Joy
Object number1991.35.7
Status
Not on view
Copyright© Thomas RuffMore Information
In his Constellation series, conceptual artist Thomas Ruff reprinted photographs of deep space from negatives taken at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The coordinates of this image are within the Southern Hemisphere constellation Carina, which includes the Carina Nebula, a vast region of star formation. Its areas of dark absorption nebulae and light emission nebulae are visible in the upper left-hand quadrant of the photograph. Ruff's appropriation of such scientific documents, however, seems to highlight their beauty as much as their content.
Exhibition History
Recent Acquisition: Aids Portfolio
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (March 6, 1992 - May 4, 1992 )
Day Without Art
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (November 18, 1996 - December 31, 1996 )
Queering the Museum
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (April 15, 2004 - June 6, 2004 )
Starry Dome: Astronomy in Art and the Imagination
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 1, 2009 - December 23, 2009 )
Time Well Spent: Art and Temporality
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (July 26, 2016 - December 23, 2016 )
Everything is Stardust: Artmaking and the Knowability of the Universe
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 1, 2023 - December 23, 2023 )
Collections
  • Modern & Contemporary