Artist/Maker
Rigoberto Torres
(American, born Puerto Rico, 1960)
Artist/Maker
John Ahearn
(born 1951)
Sunshine (with Stripes)
1993
Place madeNew York, United States, North America
Acrylic on cast plaster
Overall: 19 1/2 × 18 1/2 × 9 in. (49.5 × 47 × 22.9 cm)
Purchase
2003.89
Interested in making art on the street that emerged authentically from the community, John Ahearn collaborated with Rigoberto Torres for fifteen years during the 1980s and 90s, making life casts of individuals who stopped by their South Bronx studio, producing a body of work that paints a portrait of the neighborhood. The two also collaborated on making life casts in Times Square, a storefront project that attracted the attention of the unidentified woman seen here. Torres saw classical beauty in Sunshine, and carved and painted most of the piece; Ahearn painted her face, seeing Sunshine as a Romantic heroine. Both artists are also influenced by santeros, the traditional religious and heroic figures depicted in statues in Latino communities.
ClassificationsSCULPTURE
Henry Alexander Ogden
ca. 1925
1936.834g