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Vision

Vision

Cottingham used his depictions of shopfronts to document America’s rapidly changing street scene. Photographs 
helped him to isolate his subject and create unexpected compositions. Nonetheless, his sleek images with harsh 
contrasts between light and dark appear unrealistic, partly due to the exaggerated size of the neon lettering. 
Cottingham once said that he doesn’t ‘care about being realistic’. His graphic imagery betrays his previous life 
as an art director in the advertising world. [text 2024] 
Title
Vision
Dating
1973
Object type
schilderij
Object number
28875

Robert Cottingham

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Materials
doek
Technique
olieverf op doek (airbrush)
Dimensions
  • hoogte 198 cm
  • breedte 198 cm
  • hoogte (met lijst) 200 cm
  • breedte (met lijst) 200 cm
Acquisition
aankoop door Hedendaagse Kunst-Utrecht (overdracht van HK-U aan CM d.d. 30-11-1989) (1975)
Associated subjects
(herkomst)
Inscriptions and marks
signatuur en opschrift achterzijde, op doek (met verf): VISION // 1973 // COTTINGHAM
Rights
Collectie Centraal Museum Utrecht / foto Adriaan van Dam © Robert Cottingham, courtesy of Louis K. Meisel Gallery
Documentation
Op scherp: Fotorealisme nader bekeken / In Focus: A closer look at photorealism, Hanneke Grootenboer, Esmee Postma, met een bijdrage van Linda Nochlin, WBOOKS (Zwolle, 2024) Centraal Museum (Utrecht, 2024), 128 p.
Amerikaans fotorealisme = Amerikanischer Fotorealisme = American Photorealism : de verzameling = die Sammlung = the collection: Museum Hedendaagse Kunst Utrecht, [tekst Wouter Kotte], Museum Hedendaagse Kunst (Utrecht, 1988) Stadtmuseum, Ratingen (Ratigen), 104 p.
This is America : visies op de Amerikaanse droom, red. Meta Knol, Pauline Terreehorst, Meulenhoff (Amsterdam, 2006), 206 p.