Untitled (Boy with flag), number 2, from "Portfolio Three"
Ralph Eugene Meatyard, American, 1925 - 1972
1959
Gelatin silver print
Edition of 20
Overall: 6 3/4 × 6 3/4 in. (17.1 × 17.1 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Harry Shafer Fisher 1966 Memorial Fund
PH.974.131.2
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Photograph
Research Area
Photograph
Not on view
Label
Ralph Meatyard posed his seven-year-old son in a Lexington, Kentucky, mansion to conjure an allusive scene. The boy sits in a sturdy chair, simultaneously cradling a doll and pressing a flagpole into her stomach. The worn doll, peeling wallpaper, and discarded newspaper suggest decay and decrepitude. This photograph was published in a 1971 Time-Life book under the title Christopher and the Rebuilding of America. That title, along with the waving American flag, asks us to consider the boy and doll as symbolic figures, speaking to the country’s past and future. Who is rebuilding America, and what shape might it take?
From the 2019 exhibition All Dolled Up, curated by Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. & Harvery P. Hood 1918 Curator of Academic Programming
Course History
SART 29, Photography I, Virginia Beahan, Winter 2014
Exhibition History
All Dolled Up, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 11-August 11, 2019.
Photographs from the College Collection: Selected Acquisitions 1974-1978, Barrows Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 21-May 21, 1978.
Sex, Gender, and Society: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 19-October 18, 1992.
Provenance
Center for Photographic Studies, Barre, Vermont; sold to present collection, 1974.
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