Existing comment:
Dallas 1963, from the series History
2013 archival pigment print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Donald Standford Rosenfeld Jr.
2017.41.13
Dallas 1963 shows a model of President John F. Kennedy in a black Lincoln Continental moments before he was assassinated. The photograph is loosely based on Abraham Zapruder's famous 8mm amateur film of the tragedy, but the orientation of the car and the figures is reversed. The First Lady and her pink hat, rather than the president, become the focus. Despite this and the blurring of the image, the subject is unmistakable. Its continual repetition in the media has embedded the scene in our collective psyche, reinforcing public fascination around the tragedy. Levinthal's adaptation not only gestures at the actual event but also these countless restagings. |