George Washington

Artist Bill Armstrong (b. 1952)

Date2013

MediumC-print

Dimensions27 × 20 in. (68.6 × 50.8 cm)
Frame Dimension: 38 × 29 1/2 in. (96.5 × 74.9 cm)

ClassificationsPrint

Credit LineGift of the artist

Object number2013.22

DescriptionBill Armstrong is an American photographer known for his manipulation of found photographs. He uses photocopying, cutting, painting, and re-photographing to create abstractions with extreme blurring. To do this, Armstrong sets his camera’s focal ring to infinity, which causes his images to become divorced from their initial source, blurred, and abstract.

For George Washington, Armstrong’s appropriation is layered. First is the iconic, unfinished Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) portrait of George Washington, 1796. Armstrong then appropriated Chinese artist, Foeique’s image of a replica of Stuart’s original portrait. The resulting image is ghostly, inviting us to consider how art can distort our relationship to images of national heroes.

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