Eugenio Dittborn Weakness Made it Happen (Airmail Painting No. 1) 1983

  • Not on view

Created with pencil, gouache, and stamps on kraft paper, Dittborn's landmark Airmail paintings of the early 1980s were normally folded and mailed in large envelopes to various artistic venues. The creases in this work were created by the constant folding and unfolding of the large sheet of paper throughout its journey, underlining the physical quality of passing time. By repeating the icon of a house in each compartment, Dittborn highlights the concept of a transient place, where one is in constant arrival and departure.

Gallery label from New Perspectives in Latin American Art, 1930–2006: Selections from a Decade of Acquisitions, November 21, 2007–February 25, 2008.
Medium
Gouache and stamp on paper and envelope with marker, pencil, ballpoint pen, stamps, and pressure-sensitive tape with stamps
Dimensions
68 1/2 x 56 1/2" (174 x 143.5 cm)
Credit
Transferred from The Museum of Modern Art Library/Franklin Furnace Artist's Book Collection
Object number
2.2004.a-b
Copyright
© 2023 Eugenio Dittborn
Department
Drawings and Prints

Installation views

We have identified these works in the following photos from our exhibition history.

How we identified these works

In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.

If you notice an error, please contact us at [email protected].

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].

Feedback

This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].