Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is a watercolor print by Dotty Attie. It dates from 1989 and is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1989, this photolithograph by Dotty Attie combines six printed sheets with die-cut collage elements and hand-applied watercolor.
Created in 1989, this photolithograph by Dotty Attie combines six printed sheets with die-cut collage elements and hand-applied watercolor. The work integrates photographic imagery with typed text, forming a layered visual narrative. It is part of the permanent collection at The Museum of Modern Art, reflecting Attie’s interest in blending photographic reproduction with manual intervention to challenge passive viewing.
Subject & Meaning
The image centers on two large, focused eyes gazing downward at clasped hands reflected in a mirror. The face is intentionally blurred, isolating the gaze as the sole point of recognition. A typed sentence beneath describes a surreal bodily change—dislodged teeth—introducing an unsettling, dreamlike tension. The disconnect between the watchful eyes and the fragile gesture suggests internal dislocation or unspoken anxiety.
Technique & Style
Attie employed photolithography to reproduce photographic fragments, then cut and reassembled them into a composite. Watercolor was added by hand to soften edges and modulate tone. The integration of typed text—printed separately and placed below the image—creates a literary counterpoint. The technique merges mechanical reproduction with intimate, manual alterations, undermining the neutrality of photographic documentation.
History & Provenance
The work was produced in 1989 and entered The Museum of Modern Art’s collection shortly thereafter. It belongs to a series in which Attie juxtaposed found imagery with textual fragments to explore themes of identity and perception. No prior ownership history beyond institutional acquisition is publicly documented, but its inclusion in MoMA’s print department signals its significance in late-20th-century conceptual printmaking.
Context
Emerging from feminist and conceptual art movements of the 1970s and 80s, Attie’s work interrogates how images construct meaning. By fragmenting and recontextualizing photographic sources, she critiques the authority of visual representation. The inclusion of literary text aligns her practice with artists who use language to destabilize narrative certainty, reflecting broader postmodern concerns with subjectivity and fragmentation.
Legacy
Attie’s integration of text and image in this work influenced later artists exploring narrative ambiguity in print media. Her method of combining mechanical reproduction with handmade elements expanded the possibilities of the photolithograph as a vehicle for psychological inquiry. While not widely reproduced, the piece remains a reference point in discussions of gender, perception, and the limits of visual evidence.
Artist & collection
Artist
Dotty Attie is an acclaimed feminist painter, and the co-founder of the first all-female cooperative art gallery in America, A.I.R.
