Reading Position for Second Degree Burn

Dennis Oppenheim
1938-2011
Jones Beach, Long Island, New York, 1970
Chromogenic print.
14 x 20 inches (60.96 x 50.8 cm)
Gift of Amy V. Oppenheim, in honor of Dennis Oppenheim.
2023.4
Provenance: 
Amy V. Oppenheim.
Inscription: 
Verso: lower right, signed by the artist in black ink, "Dennis Oppenheim"; in blue ink, "AP 16/30"
Notes: 

Reading Position for Second Degree Burn is a photographic diptych portraying the effect of five hours of sunlight on the skin of Dennis Oppenheim. The conceptual artist lay topless for five hours at Jones Beach with a book, Tactics: Cavalry Artillery, open on his chest. This highly influential performance document simultaneously points obliquely at the perils of war and models the operation of photography itself, as he makes his body the substrate for an experimental sun print.

Artist page: 
Century: 
Classification: 
Department: