El altar de mi bisabuelo/​My Great Grandfather’s Altar, from the series Santos y sombras/​Saints and Shadows

Media - 2005.3.5 - SAAM-2005.3.5_1 - 70073
Copied Muriel Hasbun, El altar de mi bisabuelo/ My Great Grandfather's Altar, from the series Santos y sombras/ Saints and Shadows, 1997, gelatin silver print, image: 17 5⁄8 x 13 3⁄4 in. (44.7 x 35 cm) sheet: 19 7⁄8 x 15 7⁄8 in. (50.5 x 40.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Moore, 2005.3.5, © 1997, Muriel Hasbun

Artwork Details

Title
El altar de mi bisabuelo/​My Great Grandfather’s Altar, from the series Santos y sombras/​Saints and Shadows
Artist
Date
1997
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
image: 17 5⁄8 x 13 3⁄4 in. (44.7 x 35 cm) sheet: 19 7⁄8 x 15 7⁄8 in. (50.5 x 40.3 cm)
Markings
signed in pencil on recto, lower right: MHasbun 1997 written in pencil on recto, lower left: El altar de mi bisabuelo 1/25 written in pencil on verso, center: 30 (illegible) 85 6 (13" baseboard / all way up real) / burn bottom 25 sec / " top 12 x 2 42 / 1:1 select soft / 24 Nov 97
Copyright
© 1997, Muriel Hasbun
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Moore
Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Keywords
  • Still life — art object — photograph
  • Object — written matter — book
  • Object — other — candlestick
  • Object — other — crucifix
Object Number
2005.3.5
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2005.3.5

Artwork Description

Hasbun captures pictures within pictures and overlays multiple exposures in one print to explore the events that compelled her family to migrate. Portraits arranged in an altar-like fashion memorialize relatives long gone. The central photo in one scene shows her great-grandfather in front of the Greek Orthodox altar he built in El Salvador after he fled there from Palestine. The other photograph seen here is an ethereal portrait of Ester, her Jewish great-aunt who survived the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013
Description in Spanish

Hasbun capta fotos dentro de fotos y superpone múltiples exposiciones en una sola copia para examinar los sucesos que obligaron a su familia a migrar. Las fotografías colocadas a manera de altar conmemoran a sus antepasados. Entre ellas, la foto central muestra a su bisabuelo frente al retablo ortodoxo griego que construyó en El Salvador después de huir de Palestina. La otra fotografía aquí exhibida es un retrato etéreo de Ester, su tía judía, quien sobrevivió la ocupación nazi en Francia.

Nuestra América: la presencia latina en el arte estadounidense, 2013

Related Books

OurAmerica_500.jpg
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art explores how Latino artists shaped the artistic movements of their day and recalibrated key themes in American art and culture. This beautifully illustrated volume presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge. Our America includes works by artists who participated in all the various artistic styles and movements, including abstract expressionism; activist, conceptual, and performance art; and classic American genres such as landscape, portraiture, and scenes of everyday life. 

Exhibitions

Media - 2011.12 - SAAM-2011.12_1 - 77591
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art
October 24, 2013–March 2, 2014
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge.

Related Posts

Media - 2005.3.5 - SAAM-2005.3.5_1 - 70073
Five Question Interviews
12/12/2013
Five Questions with Photographer Muriel Hasbun
Eye Level, with the help of former intern Becky Harlan, had a chance to speak with photographer Muriel Hasbun about her artistic roots and her current process. Her work appears in the current exhibition, A Democracy of Images: Photographs from the Smithsonian American Art Museum as well as Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art.
SAAM Staff
Blog Editor
Media - 2005.3.5 - SAAM-2005.3.5_1 - 70073
"Our America" Exhibition
09/12/2013
Preparing for Our America: Muriel Hasbun and Washington, DC’s Salvadoran Community
Artist and educator Muriel Hasbun is a member of the largest Latino community in the greater D.C. region. Hasbun grew up in El Salvador and settled here as a student in the 1980s. She is now department chair and associate professor of photography at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. Hasbun's personal history and artistic development speaks to a larger Salvadoran experience of migration and endurance in the midst of adversity.
A photograph of Carmen Ramos by Ross Whitaker
E. Carmen Ramos
Former Curator of Latinx Art
Florencia Bazzano-Nelson