Christopher Williams, Detail from SOURCE: The Photographic Archive, John F. Kennedy Library, Columbia Point on Dorchester Bay, Boston, Massachusetts, 02125, U.S.A.; CONDITIONS FOR SELECTION: There are two conditions: the photograph or photographs must be dated May 10, 1963, and the subject, John F.Kennedy, must have his back turned toward the camera. All photographs on file fulfilling these requirements are used. TECHNICAL TREATMENT: The photographs are subjected to the following operations: rephotography (4×5” copy negative), enlargement (from 8×10” to 11×14” by use of the copy negative), and cropping (1⁄16” is removed from all sides of the rephotographed, enlarged image). PRESENTATION: Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974–1981, 1 October 2011–13 February 2012, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Christopher Williams, 1981

With an abiding interest in archives, Christopher Williams’s characteristic art-making strategy involves defining a set of criteria that he then uses to make selections image repositories. For this work, he mined the archives of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, choosing those photographs of Kennedy, taken on a single day in 1963, in which his back is facing the camera (there were four). Together, the images seem to portend Kennedy’s assassination, by sniper fire to the back of his head, later that year. Although Williams made Kennedy—an iconic figure in American history—the subject of his work, he opted to present him in a way that effaces his visage.