Artworks

Maria, 1980

  • Artist

    John Ahearn

  • Title

    Maria

  • Date

    1980

  • Medium

    Acrylic on cast plaster

  • Dimensions

    23 3/8 × 16 × 6 1/2 in. (59.4 × 40.6 × 16.5 cm)

  • Credit line

    The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of The Lannan Foundation

  • Object Number

    1998.7.1

In 1979, John Ahearn began to make plaster casts of the faces and shoulders of his friends and neighbors in the South Bronx. A founding member of Collaborative Projects, Inc. (Colab)—the New York artist group formed in 1977 to make art more accessible to the public—Ahearn often cast his subjects on the sidewalk and installed the finished busts along the walls of buildings in the neighborhood. Works such as Maria challenged the negative connotations that were then associated with the South Bronx and the people who lived there. Instead, these works commemorate the lives of everyday residents.


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Artworks

Maria, 1980

  • Artist

    John Ahearn

  • Title

    Maria

  • Date

    1980

  • Medium

    Acrylic on cast plaster

  • Dimensions

    23 3/8 × 16 × 6 1/2 in. (59.4 × 40.6 × 16.5 cm)

  • Credit line

    The Studio Museum in Harlem; gift of The Lannan Foundation

  • Object Number

    1998.7.1

In 1979, John Ahearn began to make plaster casts of the faces and shoulders of his friends and neighbors in the South Bronx. A founding member of Collaborative Projects, Inc. (Colab)—the New York artist group formed in 1977 to make art more accessible to the public—Ahearn often cast his subjects on the sidewalk and installed the finished busts along the walls of buildings in the neighborhood. Works such as Maria challenged the negative connotations that were then associated with the South Bronx and the people who lived there. Instead, these works commemorate the lives of everyday residents.


Explore further