Self-Portrait/Cutting Contact Sheet

2003, printed 2024

Catherine Opie

(American, b. 1961)

Culture

America

Medium

pigment print

Measurements

Image: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)

Credit Line

Norman O. Stone and Ella A. Stone Memorial Fund 2024.39

Edition

Edition of 5, 2 AP

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

Opie is originally from Sandusky, Ohio.

Description

Self-Portrait/Cutting is one of Opie’s most iconic, and best known, works. Opie positions her back to the camera. Carved into it is a child-like picture showing two skirted stick figures holding hands, with a house and clouded sun behind them. Opie created the portrait after a failed relationship, her body literally marked with the pain and trauma she was feeling. The contrast between the idyllic, child-like drawing of domestic bliss and the method of its creation is intentionally exquisitely revealing and excruciating. Opie has included a series of four images in the format of a contact sheet, thus creating a conceptual window into her studio process.