1996.66
Paracelsus
Artist
Frederick Sommer
(Angri, Italy, 1905 - 1/23/1999, Prescott, Arizona)
Title
Paracelsus
Creation Date
1957
Century
20th century
Dimensions
13 1/2 in. x 10 1/16 in. (34.29 cm. x 25.56 cm.)
Classification
Photographs
Creation Place
North America, United States
Medium and Support
gelatin silver print
Credit Line
Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
1996.66
Frederick Sommer experimented extensively with man-made negatives. In one series he made negatives out of paint applied to cellophane, which he would manipulate and peel as it dried. In Paracelsus, those liquid gestures make up the silhouette of a woman’s torso. Sommer named this work after an influential sixteenth-century physician. Considered the father of modern psychology for his early recognition of the unconscious, Paracelsus was a figure of great fascination to the surrealists, who translated and published his writings in their journals.