


Untitled 2014
This large-scale unique cibachrome photogram, measuring nearly four feet in height, exemplifies Adam Fuss at the height of his mature practice. Created in 2014 and produced without a camera, the work belongs to the tradition Fuss has spent decades refining, placing objects or substances directly onto light-sensitive paper and exposing them to light to generate images of startling luminosity and depth. The cibachrome process, long favored by the artist for its saturated color and archival stability, lends the surface a jewel-like intensity that no reproduction fully conveys. The result is simultaneously a document of a physical encounter and an object of pure optical sensation, occupying a space between painting, science, and ritual. Fuss came to prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a leading figure in the photogram's revival, drawing critical attention for his ability to transform a pre-cinematic photographic technique into a vehicle for metaphysical inquiry. Working with smoke, water, animal forms, and infant bodies, he has consistently used the photogram to address cycles of life, death, and transformation. This 2014 work carries that accumulated gravity while standing on its own terms as a resolved and deeply considered composition. Its unique status, with no edition and no negative from which another print could be drawn, is central to its meaning. The object before the collector is not a reproduction of something else but the thing itself, formed by light acting directly on chemistry. Acquired from Cheim and Read, the New York gallery that represented Fuss through significant periods of his career, and held in the Martin and Lynn Halbfinger Collection, the work carries a distinguished provenance that reflects the seriousness with which it was pursued. Collectors acquiring photograms by Fuss at this scale and from this period are participating in a market that has recognized his place among the most consequential photographers working in the medium today.
🔨 Auction Lot
Photographs
June 10, 2026
Estimate: $15,000 to $25,000
Lot 33
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