Solar Eclipse Northern Hemisphere August 11th 1999
Year: 2017
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 198.5 cm (78 1/8 in.) in diameter
Acquired from Sotheby's, 2022
This work is a piece from the “Anthropocene” series, produced between 2017 and 2018 as a relative work to paintings which depict the iris of the eye called the “Irises” series. This series of works is also known as the paintings of eclipse. There were photographic records as early in 1907, but humans have been observing the phenomenon of eclipses since ancient times. As the title suggests, this work is based on the photographic record of the total solar eclipse that happened on August 11th, 1999. While the “Irises” series depicted the pupil, one of the organs of the human body, the “Anthropocene” series, which was intentionally chosen for the same composition, depicted Quinn's sight that is directed towards the external universe. “Anthropocene” refers to the contemporary geological era with a focus on human activity. For Quinn, who has been presenting works that are always derived from the human body, the emergence of life and human anatomy are captured as something cosmic, and are raised from the contrast between the series of “Irises” and “Anthropocene”.
