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Artist/Maker
Angelika Rinnhofer
(German, born 1962)
Publisher
Light Work, Syracuse, NY
Date2005
MediumArchival inkjet print
DimensionsImage: 10 in. × 8 1/8 in. (25.4 × 20.6 cm)
Sheet: 14 1/4 in. × 11 in. (36.2 × 27.9 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, The Wynant J. Williams '35 Art Collection Fund
Object number2020.8.3
Not on view
Description"Angelika Rinnhofer describes her series Menschenkunde as portraits that combine facts, beauty, and irony in a Renaissance-style. Her work is inspired by Albrecht Durer and Michelangelo, Mannerism and the Renaissance. The portraits in her Menschenkunde series pose their subjects in bygone costumes, in postures, lighting, and composition inspired by the Old Masters, but with a unique and more contemporary mindset. While the Old Masters used portraits to depict the status and importance of their subjects, Rinnhofer’s images capture figures she has created, with no story and indication of their significance or rank. This inspires the viewers to create their own stories.
Angelika Rinnhofer was exposed to art early in her life. Her mother’s artistic talent as well as the artistic tradition in her family served as inspiration for her interest in painting. At a young age Rinnhofer was introduced to the work of painter Albrecht Durer, who lived in her hometown of Nuremberg, Germany in the sixteenth century. Durer’s work still inspires Rinnhofer today. While in art school at Fachoberschule fur Gestaltung, her interest in art shifted from painting to photography. According to Rinnhofer, many things have influenced her current photographic work, including Renaissance paintings, Gothic and Baroque churches in Europe, history, people’s faces, jewelry designed by a friend, seeing Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine, beautiful fabrics, and reading the New York Review of Books." (SOURCE: Light Work, Syracuse, NY)
Additional Details
Provenance
2020: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by purchase from Light Work, Syracuse, NY.
Markings
Marks: "EPSON; Epson / Professional Paper" on verso printed repeatedly across sheet.
Signature
Signed "Angelika Rinnhofer" on verso at lower right in pen.
Inscribed
No inscriptions noted.
Karen Hampton
Date: 2015
Medium: Dye-sublimation print on polyester twill over archival inkjet print on silk organza, with hand-stitching
Object number: 2015.4
Unknown, Peru (Cuzco School)
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Medium: Oil on canvas
Object number: S2019.1.2
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Date: mid 18th-late 18th century
Medium: Oil on canvas
Object number: S2019.1.1
Unknown, Peru (Cuzco School)
Date: late 17th-early 18th century
Medium: Oil on canvas
Object number: 2019.12
Toyokuni III
Date: 1852
Medium: Polychrome woodblock print on two sheets of paper
Object number: 1994.92
Marla Sweeney
Date: 2003
Medium: Archival inkjet print
Object number: 2020.8.22
Sharon Lockhart
Date: 2008
Medium: Three chromogenic prints
Object number: 2014.1.a-c