TitleME
Artist
Robert Cottingham
(American, b. 1935)
Date1993
MediumWatercolor
DimensionsSheet size: 21 1/4 × 21 in.
Plate size: 12 × 12 in.
Mat size: 23 1/2 × 21 in.
SignedSigned lower right: "Cottingham 1993"
SubmissionANA diploma presentation, 1996
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY, Gift of a private collector, 1996
Object number1996.25
Label TextIn ME, Cottingham makes a clever and humorous reference to the tradition of self-portraiture and Hollywood celebrity--isolating the word ME and its reflection. The artist is fascinated by signs and letters, and regularly excerpts letters or word fragments to create new meanings or ambiguities. He celebrates downtown America, and has frequently pictured old theatre marquees adorned with neon, which are pictured from below and skewered at an oblique angle. Cottingham tries to catch old movie facades before they disappear, recognizing that the “magic combination of neon, chrome, brick and glass will never exist quite the same way again.”
