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BM (3Fb)

Luis Mallo

Photography

BM (3Fb) is part of Luis Mallo’s Open Secrets, a recent group of photographs taken in museums in New York City and elsewhere. The series focuses on storage areas and reveals hidden spaces not typically accessible to the public. This image, from the Brooklyn Museum, shows storage for sculptures whose identity in most cases is partially obscured by protective wrapping. The photographer’s careful composition represents only a fragment of a larger whole, revealing the beauty within the more or less organized structure of museum storage while not decoding the system itself. Mallo does not stage or rearrange any items, and his mostly straightforward composition aspires to an objective viewpoint. The combination of sometimes random objects, however, creates a sense of mystery and reminds us that collections are not always easy to classify.
PORTFOLIO/SERIES Open Secrets, 2006-2009
MEDIUM Chromogenic print
DATES 2008
DIMENSIONS 30 x 39 in. (76.2 x 99.1 cm)  (show scale)
COLLECTIONS Photography
ACCESSION NUMBER 2009.60.5
CREDIT LINE Gift of the artist
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Luis Mallo (born Cuba, 1962). BM (3Fb), 2008. Chromogenic print, 30 x 39 in. (76.2 x 99.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the artist, 2009.60.5. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Image courtesy of the artist, CUR.2009.60.5_artist_photograph.jpg)
EDITION Edition: 2/5
IMAGE overall, CUR.2009.60.5_artist_photograph.jpg. Image courtesy of the artist
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT ©Luis Mallo
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