Finding: Source Material in the Archives of American Art Dottie Attie

Dotty Attie weaves together fragmented images and text to construct fictional narratives. Many of the images derive from postcards or reproductions of classical European paintings. “I really like my sources. . . . I’ve always been a referential artist; I’ve always had to work from something,” the artist wrote in a 1992 statement. As part of her process, Attie isolates certain details and meticulously draws them. The drawings juxta posed with the text blocks suggest new ways of thinking about art and culture.