Chris's Room

"Chris’s Room" was purchased in 1980 while Richard Rodriguez was earning his M.F.A. at George Washington University. At the time, the Corcoran Gallery of Art was working to build its collection of color photographs with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Polaroid Corporation. This photograph was displayed in the Corcoran’s 1981 exhibition of recent photography acquisitions. More than half of the 40 photographers represented in the show were, like Rodriguez, living and working in D.C. at the time. "Chris’s Room" gives us a small glimpse through the open door of a house into someone’s home. Paul Richard, a "Washington Post" critic who attended the exhibition, noted the way that Rodriguez uses color to bring life to the image. The many blues of the nightscape contrast with the warm, yellow light spilling from doorway of the stone house. This use of color sets the emotional tone of the piece, that the comfort and safety of the interior domestic space feels small and precious against the uncertainty of the world beyond.

Richard Rodriguez (Author), A Photographic Sequence and a Survey of the Sequential Concept in Photography, M.F.A. Dissertation, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., 1982

Concurring Experiences: Together, Apart, Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, Washington DC, August 31, 2021 - December 18, 2021

Concurring Experiences: Together, Apart (www.corcoran.gwu.edu/concurring-experiences-together-apart), Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, Washington DC, March 12, 2021 - August 31, 2021

Recent Acquisitions: Photographs, Corcoran Gallery of Art [1869-2014], Washington DC, February 03, 1981 - March 08, 1981

HOME: Selections from the Corcoran Study Collection, Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, Washington DC, November 14, 2019 - March 13, 2020