Accession Number
1977/2.32

Title
Oculist Witnesses

Artist(s)
Richard Hamilton

Object Creation Date
1968

Medium & Support
mirror silver in laminated glass on aluminum base

Dimensions
25 9/16 in x 19 15/16 in x 8 in (64.93 cm x 50.64 cm x 20.32 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of the Marvin Felheim Collection

Label copy
March 28, 2009
In 1964, Richard Hamilton was asked to organize a retrospective of the work of Marcel Duchamp, whom he greatly admired. Working in close collaboration with the artist, Hamilton reconstructed Duchamp’s seminal, Large Glass (1915–23), a monumental 5’ x 9’ “painting” executed on two glass window panes (the original was too fragile to be transported). Because the image rests on a transparent surface, the Large Glass’s surrounding environment is integral to the experience of the work and it is placed perpendicular to or stands away from the wall in the exhibition space.
The complex iconography of the Large Glass explores the interrelation between male and female desire. The “Oculist Witnesses,” here excerpted from the lower half of the original, represent the viewers of the Glass. The forms of the figures are were what remained after scraping away mirror silver, a time- and labor-intensive process whose effect was, nevertheless, brilliant for registering the presence—and absence—of the spectator. The Oculist Witnesses are activated by the reflection of the viewer’s physical body standing directly in front of them; when no one is there, they disappear. This edition was the result of Hamilton’s experiments with devising a method for considerably cutting down the production time of this section.

Subject matter
The three circular designs that resemble the charts used to test one’s vision are the “oculist witnesses” from Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass.

Physical Description
screened print on glass colored with mirror silver and laminated, freestanding

Primary Object Classification
Print

Additional Object Classification(s)
Mixed Media

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
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Keywords
Neo-Dada
abstraction
modern and contemporary art
multiples