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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
A Classical Pose
John O'Reilly (American, 1930–2021)
1986
Medium/Technique
Polaroid montage
Dimensions
Image: 10.2 × 15.2 cm (4 × 6 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of James A. Tellin in honor of Howard and Katherine Yezerski
Accession Number2021.1018
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPhotographs
John O’Reilly, the Worcester, MA, artist, is esteemed for the highly personal photo-collages and montages that he made over many decades. O'Reilly's work was featured in the Whitney Biennial in 1995, and was the subject of a retrospective at the Addison Museum of American Art in 2002. In creating his intricate collage-like images, O'Reilly used old photographs and prints purchased at flea markets or received as gifts, reproductions torn out of books, as well as his own photographic imagery. Finding inspiration in the assemblage boxes of Joseph Cornell, he fashioned dream-like fantasies spun from ideas related to his own artistic creativity, his sexuality, and a passion for literature and art history.
Provenance2021, bequeathed by the artist to James Tellin, Worcester, MA; 2021, gift of James A. Tellin to the MFA. (Accession date: December 15, 2021)