Art of the 20th Century
A Revolution in the Arts
Lucas Samaras
Lucas Samaras (b. 1936) is an American photographer known for his artistic distortions and mutilations of his self-image to create "Photo-Transformations".
Samaras was born in Kastoria, Greece. He studied at Rutgers University on a scholarship, where he met Allan Kaprow and George Segal. He participated in Kaprow's "Happenings," and posed for Segal's plastic sculptures. Claes Oldenberg, whose Happenings he also participated in, later referred to Samaras as one of the "New Jersey school," which also included Kaprow, Segal, George Brecht, Robert Whitman, Robert Watts, Geoffrey Hendricks and Roy Lichtenstein. Samaras previously worked in painting, sculpture, and performance art, before beginning work in photography.
Samaras' early work was composed of objects such as straight pins, twine, glitter, and nails collected in boxes, which suggested personal fetish objects. He subsequently constructed room environments that contained elements from his own personal history. His "Auto-Interviews" were a series of text works that were "self-investigatory" interviews. The primary subject of his photographic work is his own self-image, generally distorted and mutilated. He has worked with multi-media collages, and by manipulating the wet dyes in Polaroid photographic film to create what he calls "Photo-Transformations.
Photo-Transformation
Photo-Transformation
Photo-Transformation
Photo-Transformation
Photo-Transformation
Photo-Transformation
Photo-Transformatio
Box #35
Studio Workbench 2
Interior 20
Photofictions Conflict 23
Photofictions Sunset Bouquet 1
Photofictions Orchid 44
Couch Potato 7
Evening Bouquet 4
Clump Box with Utensils #43
Photo-Transformation
Untitled aluminum foil and colored glass
Box
Mirrored Room
Box #61
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Large Drawing #45
Auto Polaroid
Panorama. February 23
Photo-Transformation
Still Life
Sitting
Head #178
Head #12
Head #31
Photo-Transformation
Photo-Transformation
Untitled
1974
Chair Transformation Number 20B
Winged man with head on knee
Winged woman with three arms
Stiff Box No.12
