"A" Series #2
Artist:
Kathy Vargas
(American, born 1950)
Date: 1992
Dimensions:
23 3/4 x 19 13/16 in. (60.3 x 50.3 cm)
30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61 cm) (Mat)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with funds from the Robert J. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation
Object number: 94.51
Signed: Signed, top center, reverse of mat
Label Text
"The 'A' series started out as many things
at once. 'A' was the first initial of a former
love, gone from my sight by the time most
of this series was executed. At that same
time, many of my friends were succumbing
to AIDS. So the 'A' came to mean Absence,
for all those who come and go through our
lives. The central figure in each piece from
the 'A' series is a milagro heart, for those
small miracles we're all anticipating."
Kathy Vargas
Vargas has received national recognition over the past two decades for her photographic explorations of time and memory. In this example, dedicated to a friend who died from AIDS, Vargas presents layered symbolic images associated with life, death, resurrection, and remembrance.
To achieve an ethereal quality appropriate to the subject matter, Vargas creates double exposures with a 4 x 5 camera, eschewing such processes as manipulating her pictures in a darkroom or on a computer. To soften the images further, the artist colors each one by hand, yielding a desired poetic effect.
(David Rubin, Label Text 2008)
at once. 'A' was the first initial of a former
love, gone from my sight by the time most
of this series was executed. At that same
time, many of my friends were succumbing
to AIDS. So the 'A' came to mean Absence,
for all those who come and go through our
lives. The central figure in each piece from
the 'A' series is a milagro heart, for those
small miracles we're all anticipating."
Kathy Vargas
Vargas has received national recognition over the past two decades for her photographic explorations of time and memory. In this example, dedicated to a friend who died from AIDS, Vargas presents layered symbolic images associated with life, death, resurrection, and remembrance.
To achieve an ethereal quality appropriate to the subject matter, Vargas creates double exposures with a 4 x 5 camera, eschewing such processes as manipulating her pictures in a darkroom or on a computer. To soften the images further, the artist colors each one by hand, yielding a desired poetic effect.
(David Rubin, Label Text 2008)
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.
