Untitled No. 39
| Artist | Jen Davis (American, b. 1978) |
|---|---|
| Title | Untitled No. 39 |
| Date | 2010 |
| Medium | Inkjet print |
| Dimensions | Image: 17 5/8 × 22 in. (44.8 × 55.9 cm) Sheet: 19 7/8 × 24 in. (50.5 × 61 cm) |
| Credit Line | Museum purchase with funds from the estate of Herman B Wells via the Joseph Granville and Anna Bernice Wells Memorial Fund, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 2016.66 |
| This artwork is currently off display. You may be able to see this artwork by filling out an art viewing room request. | |
Image of a woman sitting on a bed buttoning her green blouse with a post-shower towel on her head.
In 2002, while a college student on spring break, Jen Davis first turned to self-portraiture to address her own insecurities about her body. Her ten-year photography project explored not only personal issues related to self-image, love, and loneliness but also societal pressures of “ideal” beauty and prejudices against obese people. Despite their rawness, there is beauty in Davis’s images, which she could not see in herself. This intimate picture, the first by Davis in our collection, suggests the turban-wearing, shapely beauties in harem or bathing scenes by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Peter Paul Rubens, and Pierre Auguste Renoir, also raising questions about the objectification of the female body in the history of art.
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
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"Untitled No. 39 | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=2016.66