Face in the Crowd

Alex Prager, Face in the Crowd, 2013, three-channel video installation, color, sound; 11:52 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2016.29.1, © 2013, Alex Prager

Artwork Details

Title
Face in the Crowd
Artist
Date
2013
Location
Not on view
Copyright
© 2013, Alex Prager
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums
Mediums Description
three-channel video installation, color, sound; 11:52 minutes
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure group
Object Number
2016.29.1

Artwork Description

Alex Prager draws inspiration from the rich color photography of William Eggleston and the Southern California moviemaking industry. Her studio mirrors that of large-scale film productions, resulting in the works that project a distinctive Hollywood aesthetic. Littered with parodied clichés of popular cinema and renderings of narrative tension, anxiety, and suspense, Face in the Crowd traces a spectrum of concerns: a fear of crowds and the desire to stand out among them; voyeurism and exhibitionism; the spectator's gaze; and the inability to live up to expectations. This work showcases the anxiety of being swept up by the masses while trying to create and maintain a sense of self--conditions long present in the physical world--amplified in the virtual spaces we inhabit today.

Works by this artist (1 item)

A. Kinder or Rinder, Drawing on Door, 1887, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney, 1952.13.82
Drawing on Door
Date1887
oil on canvas
On view

Exhibitions

Media - 2016.29.3 - SAAM-2016.29.3_1 - 124404
Watch This! New Directions on the Art of the Moving Image (5.0)
September 9, 2016March 5, 2017
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image is a series of rotating exhibitions drawn from SAAM’s permanent collection.

More Artworks from the Collection

William Holbrook Beard, The Runaway Match, 1877, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1977.55
The Runaway Match
Date1877
oil on canvas
Not on view
John Henry Twachtman, Figure in Sunlight (Artist's Wife), ca. 1890-1900, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.137
Figure in Sunlight (Artist’s Wife)
Dateca. 1890-1900
oil on canvas
On view
Unidentified (Italian), Saint, 19th century, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney, 1952.13.157
Saint
Artist
Unidentified (Italian)
Date19th century
oil on canvas
Not on view