The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

The Thinkers

The Thinkers

2014
(American, b. 1961)
Framed: 270.4 x 180.3 cm (106 7/16 x 71 in.); Unframed: 270.4 x 180.3 cm (106 7/16 x 71 in.)
© Vik Muniz / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Just as the museum is a storehouse for civilizations’ cultural past, The Thinkers is a repository for individuals’ pasts.

Description

Scale is a critical component in the experience of viewing this photographic enlargement of a collage. From a distance, you see a couple posing around 1940 by Rodin’s The Thinker at the south facade of the Cleveland Museum of Art. When approached, that image dissolves into hundreds of snippets of other people’s family photos pasted together. Even the overall image is based on a snapshot from the artist’s collection of found photographs. Their original context and meaning have been lost, yet the images evoke nostalgia for our own family mementos and encourage us to think about the nature and uses of photography then and now.
  • Lago, Pedro Corrêa do. Vik Muniz: Catalogue Raisonné, 1987-2015: Everything So Far = Tudo Até Agora. [Rio de Janeiro, Brazil]: Capivara, 2015. Reproduced: Vol. 2, P. 852
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 78-79
    Ollman, Arthur. "Vik Muniz: The Rebirth of Wonder." In Vik Muniz. Arthur Ollman and Diana Wechsler,11-55. Munich : DelMonico Books ; Minneapolis : Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, 2016. Reproduced: p. 35, mentioned: p. 45
  • BIG: Photographs from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 12-October 9, 2016).
  • {{cite web|title=The Thinkers|url=false|author=Vik Muniz|year=2014|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2015.16