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Collage of five diverse artworks from the Hammer Museum Collections side by side. From left to right: 1) Contemporary painting of two embracing figures with surreal elements. 2) Post-impressionist style painting of trees with vibrant blues and greens. 3) Black and white illustration of a face with intricate patterns. 4) Japanese woodblock print style image of a figure in a checkered robe. 5) Photograph of a couple dancing, the woman in a black dress and the man in white

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Digital Archive Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology
Art Zoe Leonard, Untitled
Untitled, by Zoe Leonard, 1984/1991

Zoe Leonard, Artist
Untitled , 1984/1991

Medium
7 gelatin silver prints
Dimensions
10 x 7 1/2 in. (25.4 x 19.1 cm) or 7 1/2 x 10 in. (19.1 x 25.4 cm) each
Credit Line
Courtesy of the artist and Murray Guy, New York. Images courtesy of the artist and Murray Guy

Modes of looking figure centrally in the work of Zoe Leonard. The photographs from this untitled series feature young girls in dresses and winter coats viewing the skeletons and taxidermic chimpanzees in the dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, revealing the linear narratives constructed by anthropological displays ("we evolved from them"). We see how subjects and understandings are formed in relation to institutions, how specific visual and pedagogical systems are embraced by museums, and how constructed narratives are passed off as both "natural" and inevitable.