Lynne Cohen

Artist
Lynne Cohen
Racine, Wisconsin, 1944 – Montreal 2014

Title
Spa III (Aluminum Bed)

Date
1993

Materials and dimensions
Gelatin silver print, 8/10
75 x 94.5 cm

Credits
Purchase, Michel Phaneuf Fund

Internationally renowned Canadian artist Lynne Cohen (1944-2014) is known for her compelling photography that draws attention to unique compositions and peculiar details in the places we inhabit. Thanks to the generosity of her husband, Andrew Lugg, and the Michel Phaneuf Fund, the Museum recently welcomed several of her works into its collection, including Spa III (Aluminum Bed), which illustrates the photographer’s fascination with thermal establishments.

Evoking at once lab, morgue and spa, the composition is arresting: a bed covered in an aluminum sheet in a room with frosted glass windows and exposed pipes. The atmosphere is particularly sterile and cold – a stark contrast to what one would expect at a spa.

The acquisition of this group of photographs by Lynne Cohen has given us a more complete representation of the artist in our collection. We now have a diverse array of works that cover her favourite subjects – classrooms, spas, painted murals, waiting rooms – and span from the photos she printed herself in the 1970s, to her large-scale colour works of the 2000s.