Woman Sheet

1983

Woman Sheet, 1983. Jerry N. Uelsmann (American, 1934–2022). Gelatin silver print; framed: 53.3 x 42.5 cm (21 x 16 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Evan Mirapaul 2021.198 American photographer Jerry Uelsmann created utterly convincing photomontages before the advent of Photoshop by printing from multiple negatives in the darkroom.“The painter does not begin with a fully-conceived canvas, the sculptor with a fully-conceived piece,” said Uelsmann. “As far as I’m concerned the darkroom is truly capable of being a visual research laboratory, a place for discovery, observation and meditation.” The shrouded female body evokes surrealist images from the 1930s as well as the draperies of ancient Greek Tanagra figurines. This image at first glance reads as something seen, but it was created.