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Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
LYLE ASHTON HARRIS (1965 - ) Embrace.
Cibachrome print, 1993. 1219x762 mm; 48x30 inches. Artist's proof, aside from an edition of 6. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed "artist's proof" in ink, lower edge verso.
Embrace is a photograph that visualizes two black men holding each other tenderly in the nude. The lighting, shadow, and composition of the image act in the moment to illuminate the affection of these two individuals. Photographer Iké Udé wrote in "On Lyle's Case: Mask and Embrace in the Work of Lyle Ashton Harris,"THRESHOLDS: Viewing Culture: "The Embrace, that could be read as a steel/feathery caress. This picture is of such improbable compactness, superbly cropped, oozing sensuality, robed in warm supple tints of light. All the senses are in a revel: there's the convergence of thighs, the teasing of the groin, the knees begin to buckle, all sensations seem to melt under the feet, unabsorbable, repeating ad infinitum."
Spanning a 30 year career, Lyle Ashton Harris's oeuvre bridges multiple media. Trained as a photographer while working in collage, installation and performance art, he has pushed the boundaries of black male representation. His body of work critiques the societal norms of sexuality and race while exploring his identity as a queer, black man.
Harris received a Vanguard Award from Visual Aids (2018), a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2016) and the David C. Driskell Prize from the High Museum of Art, Atlanta (2014) among other awards and honors. He is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem.
Born in the Bronx, New York, he spent two of his formative years living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Harris obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University, a Master of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts, and attended the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program. Harris is currently a Professor of Art at New York University and lives in New York.
