It’s always interesting to hear about an installation directly from the artist. As we recently reported, contemporary artist and Art Center alum Tad Beck’s current exhibition, Palimpsest, is part of LACMA’s Manly Pursuits: The Sporting Images of Thomas Eakins. His work is a response to Eakins’ Grafly Album, also on view in the exhibition.

Beck weighs in on his installation in a guest post on LACMA’s blog, Unframed:

“During the installation of my exhibition Palimpsest, I was able to have my own private exploration of Manly Pursuits. I had never seen many of these works in person, though Eakins has been one of my primary influences since parallels emerged with my own practice. … Both Eakins’s and my own work focus on nude models. The locations look very much the same, and both Eakins and I are treading water. There was even similar passion for creating axis. While none of these parallels were intentional in Roll, they became definitive and almost seemed beyond coincidence.”

Read more: Tad Beck on his Installation, Palimpsest

Roll from CellPhoneStories @LACMA on Vimeo.