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Cityscape

Maker Francis Alÿs (b. 1959, Antwerp, Belgium)

Collaborator Juan García

Collaborator Emilio Rivera

Date1996-97

MediumOil on panel and synthetic polymer paint on sheet metal

Dimensions6 x 4 1/2 in. (15.2 x 11.4 cm) 36 x 51 1/2 in. (91.4 x 130.8 cm) 30 x 37 1/4 in. (76.2 x 94.6 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds provided by Wellesley College Friends of Art

Object number2010.94.1-3

Status

On view

RightsCopyright is retained in accordance with U.S. Copyright laws

Photo creditDavis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

More Information

Object Label

Trained in architecture and urbanism, Alÿs has been based in Mexico City since 1980. He works across media—painting, photography, video, and performance—and often collaborates to connect very local circumstances and communities with global conditions. Cityscape is part of his Rotulista (Sign painter) series, created between 1993 and 1997. Alÿs painted the smallest picture, and commissioned two Mexico City sign-painters to respond to his “original” (Juan García painted the larger, Emilio Rivera the smaller). Conceptually inventive in the way it questions authorship, authenticity, and the copy, Cityscape was executed in a process that recalls Renaissance and Baroque workshops. In 2011, the Davis presented Alÿs’s first monographic exhibition in the Boston area.