Tri-arch [From the series Cancellations] 1974 - 1978

Thomas Barrow made this gelatin silver print entitled "Tri-arch" as part of his series called "Cancellations." Here, we see a rather ordinary building front with three arched window openings. But what is most striking are the boldly scratched lines that bisect the image. Barrow was working in the United States during a period of great questioning of institutions. His act of intervening directly on the photographic negative can be viewed as an implicit critique of the photographic medium itself, and perhaps by extension, the larger institutions of art, such as museums and galleries, that display and legitimize art. He makes visible the means of production of the image. He is highlighting the materiality of the photograph. The meaning of this work is very much tied to the cultural moment in which it was made, and resources like artists' statements and critical essays can give us more context for understanding it. It is the role of the historian to interpret art by situating it within its socio-cultural setting.