Perfect World
Artist:
Manual (Ed Hill and Suzanne Bloom)
(Ed Hill born 1935; Suzanne Bloom born 1943)
Date: 1990
Medium: Type-C photograph and wood
Dimensions:
47 x 104 1/2 in. (119.4 x 265.4 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with John and Karen McFarlin Purchase Funds
Object number: 90.74.2.a-c
Label Text
"There's really no division of labor. At certain times
there is because . . . we've got to get this done. Suzanne
does all of the printing . . .she knows how to do it and
I'm not attracted to it. I tend to deal more with video.
But in terms of ideas and so forth, that's really shared."
Ed Hill
"Who does what is not important to us anymore. What is
true about the collaboration is that it's been constructive."
Suzanne Bloom
Using the name MANUAL, Hill and Bloom make all of their art as a collaborative team, which has become a common practice among many contemporary artists in recent years. The idea of working together originated in the early 1970s, when the couple was already living together and exchanging ideas. They chose the term 'MANUAL' for their shared identity because the term does not refer to any specific gender, age, or race.
MANUAL's process involves photographic manipulation of images appropriated from common media sources. Using video and photographic technologies, the couple digitally alters familiar images and places them into new contexts by repositioning them. In this example, they have employed two pictorial vocabularies-one figurative and one abstract-to construct a visual idea about perfection. The female nude in the left section is taken from a well known painting by the nineteenth century French Neo-Classical painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. The right section is a free form abstraction, reminiscent of paintings by the first modern painters of the early twentieth century. During the periods when each was the most progressive for its time, both styles were considered to be the ultimate forms of beauty.
(David Rubin, Label Text 2007)
there is because . . . we've got to get this done. Suzanne
does all of the printing . . .she knows how to do it and
I'm not attracted to it. I tend to deal more with video.
But in terms of ideas and so forth, that's really shared."
Ed Hill
"Who does what is not important to us anymore. What is
true about the collaboration is that it's been constructive."
Suzanne Bloom
Using the name MANUAL, Hill and Bloom make all of their art as a collaborative team, which has become a common practice among many contemporary artists in recent years. The idea of working together originated in the early 1970s, when the couple was already living together and exchanging ideas. They chose the term 'MANUAL' for their shared identity because the term does not refer to any specific gender, age, or race.
MANUAL's process involves photographic manipulation of images appropriated from common media sources. Using video and photographic technologies, the couple digitally alters familiar images and places them into new contexts by repositioning them. In this example, they have employed two pictorial vocabularies-one figurative and one abstract-to construct a visual idea about perfection. The female nude in the left section is taken from a well known painting by the nineteenth century French Neo-Classical painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. The right section is a free form abstraction, reminiscent of paintings by the first modern painters of the early twentieth century. During the periods when each was the most progressive for its time, both styles were considered to be the ultimate forms of beauty.
(David Rubin, Label Text 2007)
Not on view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
