For Bob’s Your Uncle (1991), Joan Wallace juxtaposes art historical references to critique what she views as the authoritarian aesthetics inherent to Minimalist art. When all of the panels are closed, the painted image comes together in the silhouette of Wallace‘s profile. The black-and-white pattern recalls Frank Stella’s Pinstripe Paintings – works often associated with the origins of Minimalism. When opened, the panels reveal a 1974 Artforum advertisement, which features the Minimalist artist, Robert Morris in military and S&M gear. This controversial advertisement was taken by many observers as proof– intentional or not – of the violent masculinity latent in Minimalism’s interest in rigorous abstraction and refusal to engage with the referential or metaphorical.

Photographed in the Whitney Museum in New York.