Untitled (McDonald's), from the series Left Behind Artist: Angela Strassheim (American, born 1969, M.F.A. 2003)

2004

Photography

Not on view

A year after her graduation from the Yale School of Art, Angela Strassheim took a road trip from Minneapolis to New York. At a stop along the way, she observed a family praying over their meal at a restaurant, a moment that she later restaged to create this photograph. Strassheim chose as her setting a McDonald’s, a symbol of all-American, family-friendly dining; as her actors, she enlisted a family whom she had met while attending church with her own born-again Christian family. In the image, the rightmost daughter—a stand-in for Strassheim—looks up, breaking the chain of bowed heads to peer through the plate-glass facade.

Medium

Chromogenic print

Dimensions

image: 37 9/16 × 47 5/8 in. (95.4 × 121 cm)
framed: 39 × 49 1/8 in. (99 × 124.8 cm)

Credit Line

John H. Friedman, B.A. 1975, J.D. 1978, Art Gallery Director's Discretionary Fund

Accession Number

2005.68.2

Culture

American

Period

20th century

Classification

Photographs

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Bibliography
  • Lisa Hodermarsky et al., On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2021), 278–79, no. 67, fig. 1
Object copyright
Copyright Angela Strassheim
In Copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

chromogenic color prints

Subject

Women artists

Edition

Edition of 8

Technical metadata and APIs

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Open in Mirador

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