New Limited EditionsHello Museum

For sale inquiries, please email limitededitions@newmuseum.org.

Details

Thomas Demand
Presidency, 2010
Dye transfer print
13 ¼ x 9 ¾ x 3 ¾ in (33.65 × 24.76 × 9.5 cm)
Edition of 10
Courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

Thomas Demand has donated a Limited Edition entitled Presidency to the New Museum. This remarkable image comes from a series depicting the Oval Office that appeared on the cover and inside the New York Times Magazine, November 9, 2008, following the election of President Obama. The series was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington and now Demand has made an additional image and Limited Edition from the series especially for the New Museum.

The photograph provides a timely exploration of the iconic American Presidential Oval Office, called by many “the most powerful room in the world.” Demand portrays the room famously scrutinized for symbolism, absent the individuals who activate it and in which world-altering decisions are made. The details left out of Demand’s painstaking mockup make the unreality of this scenario obvious and lend a discomfort, with the strangely familiar, yet impersonal, office on display. The image is integrated into a custom fabricated freestanding frame.