Back Door at High-Tide

Artist Jack Pierson American, born 1960

Date2005

MediumChromogenic print

Dimensions38 x 30 in. (96.5 x 76.2 cm)
Frame: 43 1/4 x 40 1/4 in. (109.9 x 102.2 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LineGift of Allen G. Thomas Jr. in honor of Lawrence J. Wheeler

Object number2014.14.46

On View

Not on view

Label TextThe work of multi-faceted Jack Pierson originally focused on expressing his captivation with the glamour and the grandeur of celebrity culture. Well known for his sign-letter installations—finding plastic, metal, or wood materials in junkyards of discarded signage he chooses words like “Paradise” and “Fame” to construct large sculptures that explore the relationship between art, language, and artifice.

In Back Door at High-Tide, Pierson creates an image that is simultaneously vague as well as particularly specific. An especially shortened foreground—a breezeless American flag, “No trespassing” sign, and overhead lamp—quickly gives way to the background of a hazy expanse of sea and the blurred shape of a boat. This image provides a refreshing contrast to Pierson’s better known works. The snapshot style of images like this is specific to the moment it captures but also portrays a more general narrative open to interpretation by viewers.
[L. Dougherty, 2014]

ProvenanceCreated 1995; collection of the artist; [Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York, via Julie Saul Gallery, New York]; Allen G. Thomas Jr., Wilson NC, 2000; given to NCMA, 2014.
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “In Focus,” April 3–July 17, 2005.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Private Eye: Allen G. Thomas Jr. Photography Collection," September 13, 2014–March 22, 2015. Object Rights Statement

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